vacuum forming


F

flaja

New Member
Has anyone here ever build their own vacuum forming apparatus? Would it be possible to use a vacuum former to make duplicates of the parts of plastic model kits?

Also, I have found on youtube instructions for making plastic sheets from cornstarch and glycerin. I wonder if you could use this bioplastic in a vacuum former to make parts for a model train layout.
 
A lot of modelers in the IPMS, (International Plastic Modelers Society, I think thats the proper name), have used vacu-forming for years to make parts with. They will make a master and then copy off of that. Some guys even have vacu-formed models for sale, but its their own design, from their own masters, that way there are no legal issues. But their machines aren't like the old Mattel Toy you used to see. These machines generally are much bigger, and much more expensive. They can also handle a much thicker styrene than the old Mattel, (I used to have one).

As too making plastic out of cornstarch and glycerin and then using it in a vacu-form. I have no idea.
 
There was an article in Make magazine a few years back on DIY vacuum forming. Basically, you make a hollow box with a pegboard top, with a vacuum cleaner attachment on one of the sides. Hook up a shop vac to it, set your part on it, staple the thermoplastic (you can buy it online, I dunno if your bio stuff would work) to a wood frame, set it under the broiler in your oven until it sags. Then set it over your box, turn on the shop vac, and hit any spots that don't form right with a heat gun.

I'm sure there's a tutorial on instructables.com as well.
 
I'm an avid giant scale RC Airplane nut whose taking a break due to a new baby and needed something to do around the house.....thus model railroading is something I've always wanted to do so here I am. That being said, I do a lot of detail stuff on my airplanes and built my own vacuformer and it worked out great. Using scrap wood I had laying around the house, a bit of peg board like you might use in your garage to hang tools on, some aluminum angle from the hardware store and an old commercial carpet extractor motor (probably the hardest part to come up with). Here's a couple pics of what I ended up with. There are a couple pics of a couple of the items I made, one is a canopy for a large scale P-47 and the other is bomb parts. You can do almost anything with this and I can't see why it won't work for model railroading. I've already been thinking about what I can use it for here.
 
RW&C said:
There was an article in Make magazine a few years back on DIY vacuum forming. Basically, you make a hollow box with a pegboard top, with a vacuum cleaner attachment on one of the sides. Hook up a shop vac to it, set your part on it, staple the thermoplastic (you can buy it online, I dunno if your bio stuff would work) to a wood frame, set it under the broiler in your oven until it sags. Then set it over your box, turn on the shop vac, and hit any spots that don't form right with a heat gun.

I'm sure there's a tutorial on instructables.com as well.
Click to expand...

Make has a youtube video, which is where I first saw a vacuum former.
 
Shop vacs are used commonly but you need to have one that's really high powered or the forming will not work well. Edges will not be crisp and will be round instead leaving you with a poor looking piece. :-( I've never tried stretch forming
 
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