heat gun+plastics over flat item

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dacacheman

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Ok, so ive been flirting with all kinds of ideas to make a duplicate of this resin peice i have, its a mask thats relitavely flat, im thinking i could lay it flat, put a big sheet of plastic over it and start heating it up with a heat gun until it melts over the mask thus making a copy. anyone tried this?
 
That's the basics behind vacuforming. I don't think heating it up will do much, unless you heat it to over 300 degrees, and have some way of pulling the plastic over the mold.
 
i know how vaccuforming works, just wondering if the plastic would get melty enough to not need suction. building a vac rig would be a bitch
 
it's not that tough. Head over to tk560.com and read up. I'd say it's easier than folding papers and gluing them together 600 times.
 
It might work well....but I'd be afraid that the thickness wouldnt be the same at all of the spots if you did it like that.....Feel free to experiment though!

I'd recommend messing around with it and trying. You never know...you might stumble onto a good alternative to Vac-forming :D

~Epyon
 
Vader said:
it's not that tough. Head over to tk560.com and read up. I'd say it's easier than folding papers and gluing them together 600 times.

for a full ssuit try around 6000 folds.
 
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dacacheman said:
i know how vaccuforming works, just wondering if the plastic would get melty enough to not need suction. building a vac rig would be a bitch


No, it won't properly form to your original piece, and it will get messed up from handling it while it's hot. Thats why vacuum formers are needed.
 
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You also risk damaging the resin piece more then you would with vac-forming. I cannot tell you how careful you have to be when you even have to set the heat gun down after awhile. You'll save so much more time with vac-forming
 
I won't add to the nays as they pretty much covered the cons of using the method you described. However, I do know for a fact that most art and craft stores, especially the ones used and recommended by Art Schools, carry a small molding kit you can use to pretty much make a mold. Have you tried those?

Stay safe,

Tim.
 
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