[TriEmbed] Anyone know a good way to get access to a vacuum forming machine?

[John Wettroth]

About ten years ago, the Triangle Tech Shop built a big vacuum former machine that worked pretty well.  The main purpose was making cosplay costumes for androids and star wars characters that people could wear. 
 
It was kind of a upscaled version of the old Mattel Toy one as described by the last poster.  I never used it but I did watch its progress – maybe others were closer to the details.
 
It could handle square stock up to about 30 inches on a side.   It had a frame made of two squares of welded angle iron that just fit into one another.  You would put the plastic into the larger and then clamp the other angle iron square on to secure it.  It pivoted side to side like a book to get off the heat and onto the vacuum quickly.  The heater was made up of some industrial quartz heater tubes- surplus probably.  The vacuum side was made on the right side with a regular but big shop vacuum.  You’d heat the plastic over the heaters with your pattern (wood usually)  on the right side vacuum platform- this was just a squat MDF box with a lot of holes in the top.  When the plastic started to droop, you would flip on the vacuum, flip the floppy plastic on over the pattern- the vacuum would pull the plastic down over the pattern and the part would cool in a few minutes.  It worked pretty well, they made a half dozen Star Wars Storm Trooper Costumes.  I was surprised how easy it really was and impressed with the results.  They did it in stages with a lot of experimental versions.
 
Regards,
John M. Wettroth
E: jwet at mindspring.com
M: (919) 349-9875 
H:  (984) 329-5420
 
From: TriEmbed <triembed-bounces at triembed.org> On Behalf Of Mike Lisanke via TriEmbed
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 9:56 PM
To: Charles West <charlesryanwest at gmail.com>
Cc: triembed at triembed.org
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] Anyone know a good way to get access to a vacuum forming machine?
 
Charles, 
 
Hope everything is going great for you and yours.
I recall as a child using this...
https://www.ebay.com/b/Mattel-Vacuform/727/bn_7114054425
much later in life but still years ago, I've watched DIY Youtube videos on vacuum forming. 
I was interested in the tech and was surprised that a great number of vacuum draw holes was Not needed. 
But still it all depends on the size and requirements of the product.
Your product idea seems to fit in the vacuform size and pin spacing. 
as I recall (after very long time) it had a great number of tiny pinholes in its forming platen.
I held thin plastic sheets in a metal frame which is held against a heater (opposite of the forming platen) 
which is then swung into place for vacuum pump down. 
Anyway, I hope the story helps. 
I haven't worked on implementing my own (yet) because there's so much manufacturing tech to look at/choose!
 
On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 9:31 PM Charles West via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org <mailto:triembed at triembed.org> > wrote:
Hello!
 
I'm kinda all over the place project wise (apologies Paul), but one of the things I am working on right now is a Phase 1 STTR grant from NASA for a new solar sail material.
 
As part of that, I'm trying to figure out the barriers to implementing a new solar sail design called a "space tow".  It's composed of a bunch of little solar sails all strung together like sled dogs to pull on something.
 
As part of that, I am trying to see whether it's possible to form corrugations in a thin plastic sheet (1-5 microns thick) so that it has some rigidity and won't need reinforcement to stay planar.
 
As part of that, I would like to try vacuum forming one of the sheets and see if that can produce the desired change in shape.
 
... as part of that, I need to find, make or buy a vacuum forming machine and give it a go.
 
TL;DR:
Does anyone know where I could find a vacuum forming machine that I could use or about their experience homebrewing one?
 
Thanks,
Charlie
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-- 
Best regards,  Mike
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