Adam Savage's Vacuum Forming Machine 

Hey Adam, And The Tested Crew. I Watched The Video Of Your Scratch-Built Space Ship You Put Out Last Week. You Briefly Showcased Your Smaller Vacuum Former And That Sparked My Interest In The Whole Process. Which Brought Me Here To Watch This Video From A Few Years Ago And Left An Even More Profound Impression. So I Started Down The Rabbit Hole That Is RU-vid In Search Of Build Models For Vacuum Formers. Came Across A Few Devices That Looked Promising In Terms Of Build Quality, Ease Of Use, And Overall Effectiveness. But Ultimately The One You Showcased In This Video Seems To Hit All The Necessary Bullet Points And Then Some, With Features That I Couldn't Find In Anyone Else's Build. Mainly The Independent Heating Elements And The Mechanism To Raise/Lower You Medium Uniformly And Accurately. I Am Extremely Interested In Building My Own Model Now, Thanks To You. The Same Size As Your Larger Vacuum Former, The Model In This Video. In Fact I Would Love One That Is Exactly Like The One In This Video. I Was Wondering If You Had Any Type Of Schematics Posted/Uploaded Anywhere Accessible To The General Public. That Along With A List Of Building Materials Or A General Guide And Instructions For Assembly. If You Had The Entire Process Documented And Available To Anyone Who Wishes To Build It, I Would Be Astounded And Grateful. If They Are Not Available Already, Is There A Way You Could Make Them Available? I'm Sure There Is A Fair Amount Of People Who Would Be Interested In The Process, And Maybe Some Others Who Are Interested In Constructing A Vacuum Former Of Their Own. Long Time Fan Of Yours, Adam. Since The First Season Of MythBusters. I'm Happy That You Continuously Share Your Work And Experience With Your Audience. You Provide A Great Service To Your Community. I Look Forward To Reading Your Book.

@@glorifiedg22 I don't want to be present when they read your will.

@@user-pn4ux9gx5m LoL. Why?

@@glorifiedg22 Joke. For the length of your comment. 😆

@@user-pn4ux9gx5m Lol. In That Case, If And When I Do Make A Will I'll Make Sure To Leave You Everything.

Definitely!!!!!

+Darren Devine Also: More, Adam!

+Ivan Campos nah norm is good at vr

More Adam! Less Norm!

Darren Devine .. Africa HiTech? nice

+Xplosion51 well he's obviously done better at life than you :)

+Xplosion51 It obviously did because you're on this planet.

+Xplosion51 I can tell.

+USWaterRockets Seconded!

Nighthawke70 I was shocked that Adam never learned this trick. It's great for demolding castings too!

+flaggerify I lvoe that Joey usually only resorts to that for the time lapse shots he does!

I'd also like to thank him for not including an annoying foreground noise called Norm in this video.

that was actually very funny

+alosercalledsusie That is BANG BANG BANG really funny quote

Hi you do realise that what was stopping it popping of was the air not able to get in if you use a tube to blow air in next time

If the air can't get in, then how did it get out during the form?

"I learned that I need a tighter" BANG BANG BANG

Too much heat and it will rip. Too little and it wont form enough.

+Charles Hanson the multi-toll holder comes to mind. Gets most of the way through the build & realizes he ruined it & starts over.

He is not a human

@@chance3611 You're correct. He's a Mythbuster

The mold has horrible webbing. He’s human alright

That would be a long video! He admits to making lots of mistakes. He just knows how to fix them.

+MrSerrrg88 or a Wolverine one ;)

+MrSerrrg88 I like your thinking!

Awesome idea!

+MrSerrrg88 I would think something with that degree of detail would be really hard to get a good copy of with a vacuum former. It might end up as just a vaguely humanoid blob

+Zelmel I guess the idea is not to get an accurate copy, but more like mimic the "Han Solo in Carbonite" look...

Same.

yeah me too.

That's what I was thinking too.

In hindsight, so was Adam!

Same thought, it would have just popped the form off like nothing.

+3E yup, exactly why most home made ones are done with pegboard.

+MyBrothersMario He means through the buck positive -- the metal base of the former is already perforated. Having a channel(s) through the buck would mean after it seals to the sides of the mdf it can still get detail up high.

you could also use those holes to put compressed air through to remove the form off of the buck without slicing it

+frollard and if you channeled it a bit you might have access to blow air back through to help pop the cast off.

+aintnobitchms that's what I was thinking. even just a shot up the bottom edge of the draw.

+John Ridley I was going to suggest the same, but without the hole, as you could do that by pulling out one of the sides. One approach or the other should work!

+John Ridley The buck is held in by friction, not suction.

That and a bit of draft angle would've helped

+Brian Ortiz doesnt look like much of a draft on there, there probably is some suction.

+Brian Ortiz maybe not suction, but adding 100psi to that square foot area of the inside of the top would remove the form in a real hurry.

I was thinking just a small hole, 1/8" maybe, might mean a bigger hole drilled from the bottom (to get the length of drill), then the 1/8 to break through the top

i was thinking the same thing. Then I though about cutting the form into quarters and shimming between them. After forming, remove the shims and it should fall out. Although it would be really hard to hide the parting lines. but then again, I like Adam said it isn't going to be seen so its appearance isn't a big deal.

i get the reference :3... it's the anchorman right? 😗

+Ace Sul I gotta be honest, that smells like pure gasoline.

Ace Sul it be 99% if he knew what he was doing

That's because he's a baos.

+reddevved Most likely a tighter frame.

+reddevved seal or frame.

+reddevved oh its obvious he just needs a tighter

+reddevved that wood frame he put around the outside of the ABS after pulling the ABS down.

DanielRichards644 you mean seal?

+Austin Jacob exactly what I was thinking. drill a hole, and plug it with a dowel while vaccuforming, and then remove the dowel and some compressed air might help release it. disclaimer- I've done exactly 0 vaccuforming but enjoy the demonstration.

+Derek Place When ive done it we drilled holes through the form as it helps remove the air especially if you have cavity's and weird shapes but you do end up with little dint's on the finished piece.

I don't really think the reason that the mold didn't want to come off of the buck had to do with the air flow. I think there's just a lot of friction between two items that are perfectly shaped around each other.

+Chance Price probably true.

+Austin Jacob This is often done in industrial applications of this technique where the mould has _tiny_ holes all the way through, vertically, to allow for easy de-moulding. A draft angle of 7° is also very common and good rule of thumb for designing moulds. But if you don't get the parameters right these holes might show up as dimples in your form.

does it inbed in the plastic? Like say I want a transparent material. Would it leave artifacts in the finish?

And fuse blowing.

+Firewisplet r/im14andthisisfunny

+Nik Butler For having built with my friends, if you built the table itself right, you can't really blow the vacuum cleaner unless you over estimate the vacuum and let it on for like a minute when the plastic isn't pulling. The real problem you encounter is that you don't get a good pull. In the end, we used a commercial grade shop vac to do it.

+Nik Butler Should have seen the look on my face when I saw James Burton use a plain old household Dyson vacuum & space heaters in a wood "oven" lined with foil for his larger former. I was like, "What the Hell? That is the most brilliant cheap solution I've ever seen!" Thing totally works great too!

Volvary I used a 1980s wet vac and spliced it so it pulled from all 4 sides.. Amazing job it did....

Oh, and you get better results on a warm form too ;)