VACUUM FORMING TEST 

I always appreciate seeing people post their less than best attempts too. Its encouraging seeing people work hard

A point worth mentioning, the underside of the mould in the centre should be hollow. Areas that are difficult to pull-in should have tiny holes drilled ie in corners and areas where the vacuum pulling the sheet down blocks these hard to get to areas. I worked for many years on huge Shelley vac formers, prototype moulds made from metal powder loaded epoxy, we used long pieces of Piano wire as a Drill bit to make these tiny holes and drill into the central cavity.. hope that helps.. Steve

I know this is an old video, so you prolly have the kinks out by now, but for those who haven't, keeping some space between the heat source & the lexan will help it heat more evenly. Having the "oven" directly above the vacuum & molding object will prevent creases & wrinkles (instead of trying to move it). Also, if you catch it very quickly with an oven mitt or tool, you might be able to force the air out of the details on the top of the truck cab (the squarish mock sun roof x2). You might also try touch ups with a heat gun??? Might work, might not, but something to try on perhaps the first one (or scraps). Very kewl to see one of these being used! (Especially home use!) The fun things you can mold with things like this are seemingly endless! From toys to car parts, you name it!

Nice job with this! Not perfect results, but very good never the less. I especially like your mold. I think it would help if you had a little bigger and thicker sheet of lexan to work with. Also, I noticed the sheet is sagging quite a bit when you pull it from your oven. If you can figure a way to heat the plastic from above instead of below, you'll get more even heating. Instead of the already hot center area sagging closer to the heat source, you'll get it moving away from the heat and allowing the edges time to get softer.

Heat the lexan with an electric oven at 200 faraheit for 5 minutes. Make two frames and put the lexan sheet in between the frames with a raised vacuum table at the same height of the bottom frame with window seal around vacuum table.

if you poke a few tiny holes through the mold in the roof, it'll help suck the air out from under the roof

Also, a big PLUS for you Hobby Moe putting this video up!

great video. you can tell you do not rush with your work. youre skillful.

cool guys thanks for your support and likes.......

don't leave it over the oven so long. it is sagging to much in the middle and that's why you keep getting folds in the plastic on the roof

Most shells that are made are from 1mm - 1.5mm Clear Lexan or Polycarbonate. You have to work on you heating time you are getting the sheet to hot to apply to the mold and it is leading to issues with thin spots as well. All vacume porming that I have done have always used the thicker side 1.5mm and the vacume machene that was built has a plunge method, this means the sheet is heated from above and the the mold is raised under vacume all in one motion still having heat until the vacume has been down for about 20 sec then the heater is removed (it is hinged at the top) swinging back then quench the plastic with a wet rag moving over the surface pushing into the corners of the mold. Quenching is important as if the plastic is aloud to set without it you will get the surface pulling away from the mold. Also if you purchase the mold from a producer there molds are not male molds like yours but female sucking into a mold instead of onto a mold. Hope this helps.

Great Job!!!

It will take a few tries to get it right. You are doing great. Do not give up. My suggestion is wipe off the mold with a tack wrag or towel. Like they do in car repair shops before painting a real car. It seams you have dust or dirt particules on the second try. This may help to wipe it down before each use. Also try using less heat or more heat to perfect your method . I think you will be fine after a few more tries. Excellent video

great video man, thanks for showing the failed part too. I would add some kind of clamps to allow you using your hands and push the air bubbles

Good shot at it there brother! I love your neat and professional looking rig, you put allot of work into it. As others have mentioned, heat untill sagging a "little" less these were, and preheating the mold and drilling allot of strategically placed holes THROUGH the mold itself will help pull evening into place. My 2 suggestions: Make sure there's a dense line of (vacuum) holes directly at the edges of the mold. Any further out and its self-sealing that (portion of) edge from the benefit of suction. And 2, have a friend with a good heat gun ready to "help" the first thing that looks uncooperative. For me and my "one guy operating", I plan to have two automatic locks (2 semi circle blocks with springs on each) to hold the frame to the table, so I'll be free to grab the heat gun. Glad to see taking pride and loving to create, good job man! PS, don't sell them without altering the mold significantly, you could get sued 👎

Merci, je cherchais depuis quelques temps une méthode pour fabriquer mes carrosseries. Je vais essayer !

When we vac sign faces we put baby power on the corners to assist the plastic in moving around. Helps with the release of the plastic from the form.

That's so cool

great try brother.look forward to seeing your next and successful attempt..

Hello Moe, you have missed an important point, After working with professional model makes, you should have holes where the vacuum does not pull to the underside of the mold. So, from the roof to the underside and from the front grille to the underside, this will prevent air pockets and will pull in better. The holes should be from approx 1-2 mm diameter. After looking at your video, this is the main problem that you have, maybe not heat. Best Regards, Paul, ametservices.co.uk

that is to cool.plane on making one of these my self.

I love the Henry Brothers

very goooooooooooooooooooooood

Cool. What power your heater do you use? Thank you.

wicked!

If you use a larger sheet of lexan, there will be more "middle" to work with.... not bad though... I hope you kept trying

letting the air creat a pocket premature on roof by adding spacers there is no sealing to the mold broski do not drill holes in mold its not needed an as far as the plastic goes try to heat it again instead of running it to droop of 4-5 inches like shown an try it at 3 OR run heat on it for half time then flip it an heat to droop an aslo use heat gun method aswell there are alot of wrong answers when a few right ones will make this work 100% everytime great video man your molds are amazing i suck at that part lol

if you put the Heather over the sheet and when it heats up you just pul it over your moult.less change you get rimples in the material.and mabe preheat your moult before putting the sheet over it.and than hope for the best!!

cool

One thing that you might want to try as well is to only use one vacuum. At my job we use vacuum for holding components in position while gluing them together. In the past some people have connected multiple vacuum sources to a single holding fixture, but it never seemed to help. After checking the vacuum pressure with two vacuum source and with a single the vacuum pressure is lower with two. While this seems counterintuitive, it actually makes sence once you think about it. No two vacuums generate exactly the same vacuum force, and when you seal your mold and that creates a restriction for air flow. So for the strongest of the two vacuums the point of least resistance for air flow becomes pulling air back through the weaker vacuum. Hope this helps. Also I checked a couple bodies I had laying around and around the edge they measure 1.5mm.

He kinda got the idea. The mold is crooked in the front. Practice makes perfect.

Does clear PETG turn white when over heated?

Once you have placed the lexan over molding use a heat gun (or hair dryer) to plane out imperfections or to get greater detail won't take much heat so don't get to close. your friend chris

Great video, at what temp do you set your oven at

use a bigger square or a smaller mold

What size length & withd & thickness and any any other recomendations

Try using a thicker lexan plastic. It messed up on the beginning. When u added it to the top of the mold

I wish I could make some thing like that

Hello, can you tell me what material you use for mould..?

Use a heat gun to fix the creases when its already cold while the vacuum is still on. I think that will help with the details.

What size plastic do you use? length/width

Your getting it to droop to much so it covers your cast but your plastic and frame needs to be bigger you should have at least 200mm around your cast of spare plastic that way will help

Drill holes trough the mall on places like corners

where do you get the poly lexan (1mm-2mm) From?? thanks.

Try using a heat gun on those higher points like the roof the bed the hood but for that you're going to need to make some clamps so you don't have to hold it down

Lexan was toooo hot. Should not sag that much. You need to have a bigger firmer table. Bigger peace of lexan and frame.

Use thicker lexan 1mm-2mm. Also make your vacuum former bigger, atleast 2 inches extra around the cast. Dont over heat the lexan or it will crease up. Practise makes perfect...but try to get it right every time because 1mm lexan aint cheap.

Were do u get that machine

use gravity, put everything upside down so the sucked air will self adjust the body sheet, you can also reheat if have errors in this way

Hi, nice video! which material are you using for the mold? thanks in advance! Simone

I think your home made thermoforming machine It´s totally great !!.. But also think that you are heating too much the plastic and the space betwin your mold and the frame it´s too tight.. Any way, You did a great job there and I totally liked it..

What is the name of that plastic

pone agujeros en el molde amigo

Onde encontrar os moldes

Try adding fans

Guys! Does the vacuum cleaner has to be anything special? I made a 50cm*50cm / ~20in*20in bed, and the vacuum cleaner doesnt seem to have enough pull, though i didn't make the heating system yet so i hadn't try it out yet. Should I be preparing to buy a better one? (2 vacs is not an option as i read in the comments since the one with the better performance would pull air from the other, instead of adding up the power of the two, they are subtracted from each other)

and try a thicker plastic next time to avoid cracks and marks

Thats awesome man !! good job thats one way to save 40 $$$

Love the mold, was it done with plaster if paris? I've just built my first vacuum bed, the frame is next. I have to ask where are you getting the lexan sheet from? My first attempts will be with recycled packaging materials such as PET soda bottles.

Too much heat temp needs to be 450 f and when it sags down 4 -5 inches take off heat or out of your oven

to much heat I think you must put the poly at minor deformability on the former (it should make a 3 inch curve i read)

thanks for watching and im glad you like it? please be free to check out my other videos on my channel.

Anyone sell sct moulds ?

Your over cooking the plastic and you need more pin holes in the mold itself

Body has to be 1/3 thicker of the normla thickness of body. On my heating part. I Was hinki ofnusinf chark coal. From BBQ. Im planning on making bodies for my self of 1/5

you let it heat for too long

just imagine the epic moment if this was dropped and smashed

the mould is too large for the table and sheet you need larger setup

why do you hold it on the vacuum so long? The plastic hardner in 2 secound after you put in on the vacuum... so no needs to hold it so long sir

What thickness sheet are you using?

try wider lexan

You are heating the muddle of the lexan too much.. thats why your roofs are so thin and want to crinkle.

May i know what it's use for??

Your bed is WAY too small for the size of the buck.

use a bigger sheet

You had no success ! All your test failed ! You needed to but an angle on your plexiglass frame and you needed a larger piece of plastic and cut back on the heating of the plastic it's to much that is why your are having trouble with the roof and you needed to get rid of the taped stripe that you put around the vacuum and you can also use a heat gun to help you for the top of the truck.

why would you post a video of a failure? People would like to know to do this successfully, not to fail anyway, 1) heat the lexan less (less sag) this will correct the problem with the roof 2) make your vacuum table larger. You are not able to remove enough air fast enough.

I always appreciate seeing people post their less than best attempts too. Its encouraging seeing people work hard