Test #2, I thought I'd try it this way.
It was a bad idea.
The skin on the inside is visible.
I used a 2.5 dia. piece of teflon to roll and press the poly to fill the voids. It was partially successful.
The finished plate was much thicker than the first, but was below 1/2" after cleanup and had some major voids.
I could also clearly see some lines where the skins had been.
I decided to make the non-melting skins work for me. I went back to quartering the pipe and laying the pieces horizontally in the pan, with each successive layer at 90º to the previous. This puts the skins in horizontal layers parallel to the thickness of the plates, like laying up fiberglas.
I would heat each layer until substantially softened, then roll it with the teflon (it tends to draw up shorter) along with adding bits to fill any voids before adding the next layer. It's labor intensive, but what else do I have to do?
Still need a good mold release suggestion, the pan is getting pretty beat up. Canola didn't help much, neither did way oil.
www.mavcoatmoldrelease.com
