vaccuforming question

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bennyboobear

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ok, as most of you know, in vaccuforming, you need a mold for the hot plastic to take shape over.

one question: after resining, could you use the pepakura armor as a mold?

im just curious to whether it would work well or not.

any answer is appreciated.

muchos gracias
 
no-ordinary-masterchief said:
ok, as most of you know, in vaccuforming, you need a mold for the hot plastic to take shape over.

one question: after resining, could you use the pepakura armor as a mold?

im just curious to whether it would work well or not.

any answer is appreciated.

muchos gracias

i don't see why not, as long as its fiberglassed or something to reinforce it so it wont deform or lose shape from pressure and heat. i too am trying to vacuum form pep, i think im going to try expanding foam on the inside to reinforce it, ill let you know how it turns out :)
 
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TheCalciumKid said:
i don't see why not, as long as its fiberglassed or something to reinforce it so it wont deform or lose shape from pressure and heat. i too am trying to vacuum form pep, i think im going to try expanding foam on the inside to reinforce it, ill let you know how it turns out :)
that would be awsome. please do let me know. even though it says member, im officially still a n00b....
 
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Expanding foam wont hold up to the plaster's weight. fiberglass and resin would, but still, your mold is as good as the quality of the peice, if you dont add detail to the peice, how will the final product have detail? Easier to add detail first, then make a mold just to let you know...
 
I'd say as long as your pep helmet looked good, and was sturdy enough you shouldn't have a problem doing it. Just a resin coating wont be strong enough I'd imagine that the suction created by the vacuum would probably collapse the helmet.
 
The helmet will be easy doing once you have a plaster mold of it and are almost ready to vac-form it, you could carve some details carefully and sand it down to smoothen it, but if your going with molded armor, remember you need like 1000 dollars, theres no cheap way of doing this.
 
AoBfrost said:
Expanding foam wont hold up to the plaster's weight. fiberglass and resin would, but still, your mold is as good as the quality of the peice, if you dont add detail to the peice, how will the final product have detail? Easier to add detail first, then make a mold just to let you know...

well i started vacuum forming some pieces today with expanding foam and it worked fine, i just used a foam that expanded less and used more to make it sturdier which worked well, hopefully ill get some pictures up tomorow to prove it.
 
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thanks guys. i didnt want to make a piece of pep armor and have it collapse before my eyes trying to use it as a mold.

to aobfrost: i figured that would be the case. im thinking about making a mold based off the pepakura pieces and using that. something tells me that would work better in the end........

to barkode: i thought about making the chief helm by vaccuforming, but as aobfrost said, thats gonna cost ALOT of money so im thinking of alternatives for the helmet.....

again thanks for the input. as always, the help is much appreciated.
 
no-ordinary-masterchief said:
thanks guys. i didnt want to make a piece of pep armor and have it collapse before my eyes trying to use it as a mold.

to aobfrost: i figured that would be the case. im thinking about making a mold based off the pepakura pieces and using that. something tells me that would work better in the end........

to barkode: i thought about making the chief helm by vaccuforming, but as aobfrost said, thats gonna cost ALOT of money so im thinking of alternatives for the helmet.....

again thanks for the input. as always, the help is much appreciated.

Hi Pour Plaster in the paper mold and make set 1/2 to 3/4 off the table. We running the oven at 350 for .060 ABS

Rob
 
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If expanding foam works then Ok, but i didnt understand if you used plaster to make the mold, or if you just vac-formed the direct peice.
 
It doesn't really matter what material is used for vacuum forming. It just has to be solid, rigid and strong enough to withstand the vacuum pressure that's being applied. For me, I prefer that the molds are strong enough to support my body weight before subjecting it to vacuum forming. I weigh about 200lbs, so if it can hold me up, then the mold will do just fine on my table.

Materials you can use include plaster, hydrocal, ultracal, rigid explanding foam, resin and fiberglass with some kind of internal support.
 
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