Anyone have a vacuform table? i need visors done...

[MandoMan531]

when i make these helms i want to have vacformed visors made. maybe 2-3 ofeach. i can send the glassed/smoothed pepa visors to whomever would be doing it. theyll be fiberglassed and resined, bondo'd, and sanded. then painted. i can have the visor detail cut in with a dremel if it will show up in the pull. ill want at least one detailed visor and one plain one per helmet.
if i get a good deal on all the visors i will consider letting the person keep the base visors to form from.

hopefully someone out there can help me out.

also i just want the visors clear, no color.

 

[NZTK]

Vacuum forming is easier than you think, just make a table

 

[Liamthedevastator]

Hmmm....this sounds like a COMMISSION! Which in turn sounds like TRANSACTION OF GOODS! Which in turn sounds like a WANTED CLASSIFIED!

Perhaps more luck in the proper forum?

Anywho, NZ-TK Knows what he's doing. Just build your own table! That way you can make as many as you want, exactly how you want it, and without all of the shipping, commission or material/labour costs.

 

[NZTK]

Measure the inside of your oven, make frames out of pine to fit the internal dimensions, get a sheet of mdf big enough to put your frames on, and drill a large hole in the middle, plug the hole up with a pvc drain attachment and put your home vacuum cleaner into the pvc pipe opening, tape it shut with duct tape. cut your plastic to fit your frames, tape it into place with cello-tape, put the frame in the oven (on bake, the temp will be dependant on the plastic but, you want petg for this so about 160 Celsius) about 15 cms away from the element, cook it till the plastic sags about 10 cm in the centre, pull the frames out put the frames over the plug, hit go on the vacuum cleaner. All done. you will probably bollocks up the first few you try, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.

I would form the parts for you, but I'm probably on the other side of the world so the shipping would be a bit silly.

 

[WarHead9705]

I have a vac-table almost done. 90% to be exact! My oven is a little over 2 feet. And my forming surface is about just 2 feet! All i have to do is get some oven parts and install them and finish the second half of my frame that holds the plastic. And here is were i got my instructions!

http://www.tk560.com/vactable4.html

 

[LastSpartan]

Is there a risk of the plastic melting in the oven?

 

[Liamthedevastator]

Well, that question is a little redundant, don't you think ? When you put the plastic in the oven you are melting it so that you can reshape it's hardened form. You have to take it out before it sags to much, and yes it is possible to over-heat it if that's what you mean.

 

[MandoMan531]

well its kind of a family oven, and i doubt anyone will like me melting plastic in the oven. Considering we use to cook food.

 

[rvb4life]

Yeah, Burning plastic certainly dosent bring out the flavor in a Turkey......


Go with the building your own table idea. Certainly will save your food and be a bit cheaper than a new oven

 

[MandoMan531]

eh, i dont think i want to get into all that.

NZ-TK- thanks for the little tutorial but i got lost about halfway through.

 

[tubachris85x]

Meh, its more labor intensive then anything. I built one myself, not the pretiest or the best, but it does work. I actually still need to build the holding cart, and tweak the oven coils. Man I need money *sigh*

But yea, I think I built the oven for like around 80 bucks total, but the whole thing cost me I think like 200 in the end

Oh yea, I made smores with my gf on the oven when I first tested it rofl

 

[NZTK]

well its kind of a family oven, and i doubt anyone will like me melting plastic in the oven. Considering we use to cook food.

I do all my forming using my home oven, my table consists of nothing more than a draw plate, and it works fine. Plastic will only make your oven smell if you take it above its flash point (make it catch fire, that would be bad but kind of funny), when thermoforming plastics are extruded into sheets, most of the impurities are gone, they are quite safe and will not release any poisons or nasties. MDF however is not, you should never put MDF in your home oven, thats why I said use pine frames.

Is there a risk of the plastic melting in the oven?

Yes, there is also the risk of the plastic making awesome props afterwards.

 

[Rob]

I sent you a PM

 

[AoBfrost]

I do all my forming using my home oven, my table consists of nothing more than a draw plate, and it works fine. Plastic will only make your oven smell if you take it above its flash point (make it catch fire, that would be bad but kind of funny), when thermoforming plastics are extruded into sheets, most of the impurities are gone, they are quite safe and will not release any poisons or nasties. MDF however is not, you should never put MDF in your home oven, thats why I said use pine frames.
Yes, there is also the risk of the plastic making awesome props afterwards.

They will usually smell bad, they arent toxic or anything to the point you need a respirator, but they will stink because of the plastic starting to melt or burn.

 

[SGT V]

Meh, its more labor intensive then anything. I built one myself, not the pretiest or the best, but it does work. I actually still need to build the holding cart, and tweak the oven coils. Man I need money *sigh*

But yea, I think I built the oven for like around 80 bucks total, but the whole thing cost me I think like 200 in the end

Oh yea, I made smores with my gf on the oven when I first tested it rofl

Tubachris...Are you the same Tubachris doing the Dark Trooper over on The Dented Helmet? I was following that for awhile, it looked pretty good.

 

[tubachris85x]

Tubachris...Are you the same Tubachris doing the Dark Trooper over on The Dented Helmet? I was following that for awhile, it looked pretty good.

Yea, thats me. Thanks, although I feel Ive master procrastination.

 

[WarHead9705]

The thing is that the forming surface is like eating cake compared to making the oven fully work. But having all the supplies at the Beginning will help alot!!

 

[vulture]

hey Ive had this link for a while and it looks like you could use it.

http://www.studiocreations.com/howto/vacuumtable/index.html

its how to make a vacuum table

 

[Culvan]

First things first. I think this discussion belongs in the molded armor thread since that's where all the good vacuumforming information is.

... the plastic but, you want petg for this so about 160 Celsius)...

What thickness of PETG would you recommend for something like this? I just finished building my vacuumforming table and oven. I purchased a variety of plastics including some .020 PETG. Wasn't sure what sort of performance to expect from it. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to test it out soon.

I would also direct anyone's attention to TK560's website for Vacuumforming information. He has 4 different designs listed with the flaws of the first 3 documented. There is also a discussion forum he's running on Vacuumforming. The user base has made a wide variety of machines including some that are as simple as NZTK's recommended design. I believe I have even seen links to youtube videos for stuff like NZTK's setup. My only caution is that they can overdesign many of the machines. They may state things like "you need 22 inches of mercury to form ABS" where a shop vac can only pull 3-6 inches. (inches of mercury in this example is a measure of air pressure) That is true if you want extremely crisp details, but you probably aren't looking for the same level of performance they are talking about.

Back to your concerns about burning plastic. First try to find some videos of this and you can see how it works. As the plastic heats up it begins to get soft. It's sort of like heating taffy. It gets rubbery first but if you let it heat too much then it will start to turn to a liquid and will probably cause a big mess and probably a fire. Depending on the strength of your oven it will probably take 5 to 20 minutes to get it to the right temperature. If you watch it the whole time you can get a pretty good idea how quickly it is progressing. I can't tell you that four inches of sag is the right amount because it will depend on the size of the plastic you are using. Read up on your particular method, keep a fire extinguisher nearby and don't walk away from it while you are working and you should be fine.

Andy

 

[NZTK]

For visors I'd go with 1 to 2mm, my test pulls for the EVA visors have all been 1mm, it really depends on the shape and dimensions of your plug. I would like to experiment with high optical quality polycarb, but I would need to build a special oven for it. The forming set up I've been talking about really is very simple, its the bare minimum but, for smaller parts its all you need.