Do It Yourself Vacuum Forming For The Hobbyist Pdf To Jpg

Vacuum Forming (also called Thermoforming), is a simple process that uses heat to soften a plastic sheet, and then vacuum to suck it down tightly against a pattern or mold. The plastic quickly cools and retains this shape.

Vacuum forming is a simplified version of thermoforming, where a sheet of plastic is heated to a forming temperature, stretched onto a single-surface mold, and forced against the mold by a vacuum. Crafter's and DIYers alike are using Vacuum Forming Technology along with 3D printing to create their own desktop manufacturing solution. At Micro-Mark, we have everything you need to get started with Vacuum Forming.

Download File 🔥 https://tiurll.com/2xYcqJ 🔥

Our vacuum former consists mostly of

(1) a board (called a "platen") with a hole in the middle of it,

(2) a vacuum cleaner that sucks air through that hole,

(3) a pair of frames we can clamp together around the edge of a sheet of plastic, and

(4) a kitchen oven.

To use it, we'll do three basic things:

(1) heat the plastic in the oven until it's soft and rubbery and stretchable

(2) stretch it over the shape we want to copy, and

(3) suck it down around that thing, and let it cool in that shape

In more detail, we'll

0. (SETUP)

0.a. Support the board on something near the oven. The support(s) can be pretty much anything, or any convenient pair of things that is reasonably sturdy, allows us to route the hose to the vacuum cleaner without kinking it, and can be put very near the oven we're using.

0.b Put some things in the oven which we can support the plastic-holding frames on. (Glasses made of actual glass, for instance.)

0.c. Preheat the oven. This usually gives us more even heat.

0.d Position some object that we want to shape plastic over on the board, over the hole, but with some spacers under it, so that air can flow from around the the object, under it, and to the hole in the board.

1. (HEAT)

1.a Clamp a sheet plastic between the pair of frames and support it on three or four things in the oven (such as glasses made of actual glass)

1.b Wait a few minutes for the plastic to get hot and rubbery and stretchable. For most plastics, we can tell how stretchable it is by how much it sags under its own weight. When it sags about the right amount, we know it's ready.

2. (FORM)

2.a. (Turn on the vacuum cleaner, open the oven, and) QUICKLY but carefully remove the plastic from the oven with gloved hands...

2.b. ...stretch the plastic down over the shape we're copying, until the frame meets the board, creating a kind of "tent" of hot rubbery plastic over our form and stretching down to the board, and...

2.c. ...let the vacuum cleaner suck air out from under the "tent," by sucking air from under the form, and in turn from around it. This will suck the stretched, rubbery plastic inward into the desired shape, in about one second, and the plastic will cool enough to solidify in the new shape in about 10 to 20 seconds.

To make this work well, and flexibly, we'll add a few basic enhancements:

1) We'll put a foam rubber gasket on the board, the size and shape of our plastic-clamping frames. That way, when we stretch the plastic over our mold, we can press the frame against the gasket to make a seal. When the vacuum cleaner sucks air from around the mold, it will do a better job because it's not sucking air through any little gaps between the frame and the board.

2) We'll make the gasket removable, so that we can use different-sized gaskets (and plastic-clamping frames) for different-sized sheets of plastic. The obvious benefit of this is you can waste less plastic if you make different-sized things. A less obvious benefit is that it helps you use odd-sized scraps that you get from cutting the larger size out of a sheet of plastic. A much less obvious benefit is that you often get better results for certain difficult-to-form shapes, by using plastic that is somewhat bigger than the thing you're making, but not a whole lot bigger.

(I won't explain that here, but if you're interested you can check out this thread on www.rcuniverse.com, about "webbing" problems and ways to avoid them: _5086453/anchors_5086453/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#5086453 One of the best ways is to use plastic sheets about the right size for your project.)

Making the gasket removable is easy. Instead of sticking the self-stick foam rubber directly to the platen (board), well stick it to a slightly oversized sheet of something flexible---such as thin plastic, and tape that down to the board.

3) We'll make our frames out of pieces of aluminum windowscreen frame material, with internal aluminum corner braces. That will let us mix and match a few side lengths to make frames of different sizes and proportions for different projects.

4) We'll use a 3/4" galvanized floor flange (plumbing fitting) under the hole in the platen, as part of our connection to the vacuum cleaner hose. This will let us replace the vacuum cleaner with a more powerful---but surprisingly cheap---vacuum system later, if we want. A more powerful vacuum system lets you form thicker plastic and still get good detail. (If you know you'll never need to do that this, you could just make the platen hole the size of your vacuum cleaner hose, or some attachment that fits it, and glue the hose or the attachment permanently to the hole. That would be cheap and easy, but you would lose flexibility for later upgrades.)

If you've seen other homemade vacuum formers, you've likely seen "vacuum boxes" several inches thick covered with pegboard. Don't make one of those. You don't need a bunch of holes in your platen; One big one works at least as well if you're only forming one object at a time, and if you want to distribute the vacuum across several smaller molds, there are other ways of doing it. (Many industrial vacuum formers use one-big-hole platens.)

Thick "vacuum forming boxes" are likely to collapse if you ever add a powerful vacuum system---and to reduce the vacuum system's effectiveness, because the air inside the box has to be pulled out.

(If you decide later that you really want a many-hole platen, you should make a thin "sandwich construction" platen; you can use your one-hole platen as the bottom layer of the "sandwich," so starting with a one-hole platen is a good way to go.)

You'll need:

A kitchen oven or some other way of heating plastic. (Don't use a heat gun; it's hard to heat a non-tiny sheet of plastic evenly with a spot-heating device like a heat gun.) If you want to build a small standalone vacuum forming oven cheaply, check out my $30 oven design at www.rcgroups.com: =621858

A good vacuum cleaner, preferably a powerful (1000 watts or more) canister vacuum. If you don't already have one, you can get one for $5 at the Goodwill Outlet Store (a.k.a. Blue Hanger Store). Don't buy a shop vac just for vacuum forming; they don't suck any harder than a high-wattage household vac, and they're bulky. (If you already have a shop vac, though, you can go ahead and use it.) Don't buy a new canister vacuum, either; the centrifugal pumps in vacuum cleaners don't have seals that wear out, so a used one that works is fine; it'll suck as hard as a brand new one costing 20 times as much. (If the filter or bag is dirty, just take it out; you don't need a filter. If a few particles do get sucked through it, they won't hurt it; centrifugal pumps are nice that way.)

A 3/4" MDF (medium-density fiberboard) board at least 2 inches bigger than the inside dimensions of your oven, cut down to 2 inches bigger each way. If you have a big enough scrap board around---maybe a piece of plywood or thick particle board---it will probably do. It needs to be pretty smooth on one side (the top). (MDF will cost about 5 dollars for a 2 x 2 foot sheet, or about 9 dollars for a 2 x 4 foot sheet at Home Depot.) You can substitute a scrap board you have lying around (such as 1/2" or thicker plywood), but it should be smooth on the top side. (MDF is nice and smooth.)

A 3/4" galvanized floor flange (plumbing fitting). (Less than $3.00.)

A 3/4" x 2" threaded pipe nipple (or "riser"); PVC plastic or galvanized is fine. (That's just a short piece of pipe threaded on both ends, about 50 cents.)

A little PTFE tape, a.k.a. "Teflon tape," used for sealing plumbing joints. (About $1.)

Four 3/4" long wood screws, fairly large diameter but small enough to fit through the holes in the floor flange. (About $1.)

8 aluminum windowscreen frame corner braces, for 7/16" or 3/8" thick frame material. (5/16" will do for small frames and thin plastic, but thicker is better for larger or thicker plastic; small differences in thickness have a significant effect on stiffness). You want aluminum corner braces, not just plastic ones that fit aluminum frames. I use 3/8" corners from a local True Value (25 cents each) with 7/16" frame material from Home Depot, and that works fine.

2 or 3 sticks, 6 or 7 or 8 feet long, of aluminum 3/8" or 7/16" windowscreen frame material that goes with the aluminum frame corners. You'll need enough for four frame sides in each of the two dimensions of the plastic you'll be using, plus a couple of inches extra per stick. (About $4-5 per stick.)

1 box of a dozen binder clips, large size, from an office supply store. (Three or four dollars.)

A sheet of thin plastic 2" bigger each way than your chosen plastic sheet size, or just 1" bigger in a pinch, maybe a flimsy GARAGE SALE sign or a piece of the thin plastic you intend to vacuum form. (See step 7.) Unfortunately, Home Depot's big (14 x 19) signs are not flimsy or cheap, but Lowe's has 15 x 19 signs for $3. (Wal-Mart has them for $2, and smaller ones for $1 or so.)

A little silicone caulk or silicone sealant, or maybe epoxy, or rubber cement. (Any kind of gap-filling glue will work, if it doesn't set extremely quickly like hot glue. Tacky putty will do temporarily, in a pinch.)

A 10-foot roll of foam rubber weatherstrip, at least 1/4" thick and 1/2" wide, preferably 3/8" thick and 3/4" wide. You want the kind that's just foam rubber self-stick tape with a rectangular cross-section. (Three or four dollars at Home Depot.)

Some washers or coins to use as spacers.

Masking tape or (preferably) blue painter's tape.

Duct tape may come in handy, as it often does. (See Step 8.)

Some aluminum window screen material is also nice to have, but optional. Screening from a junked window screen is fine.

The main thing on this list that you likely won't find on a trip to an office supply store and a Home Depot is the aluminum window screen corner braces. (Home Depot and Lowe's only seem to sell plastic ones these days.) If you're not in a hurry, or can't find them locally, you can buy the frame corners online, and wait a few days for them to be delivered. sells a tub of twenty 3/8" frame corners for $6. (Having extra corners is nice, so that you can have some different-sized frames without having to take them apart and reassemble them when you switch sizes.)

Another option is to make your frames out of wood. That's not my favorite way, but it does work---you can use wooden frames for a vacuum former, and many people do. (They'll eventually char and/or warp, but they won't catch fire in the oven; they won't be in a hot enough oven, or not for long enough.) If you're in a hurry and especially if you have the scrap wood around, that may be the way to go, at least to get started. I won't discuss wooden frames any further, because they don't get you the mix-and-match size advantage, and tend reduce the maximum size that will fit in a kitchen oven, but if you want to pursue that option, see this thread on www.tk560.com: =466&highlight=draft+++simple+former )

My Lowes doesn't sell small sheets of MDF, or thick weatherstrip 3/4" wide, so if you want to only hit one home improvement store, try Home Depot first.

You should probably take your vacuum cleaner hose to the store, and look for a plumbing fitting that adapts 3/4" pipe threads to roughly the size of your hose (inside or outside). It doesn't have to fit well, but anything that gets you closer is good. (See Step 8.) If you already have a shop vacuum with a large hose, and will be using that, you'll want an adapter from the large hose size to the small hose size. (About four dollars.)

While you're at the store, you may want to pick up a 2 x 4 sheet of textured styrene, sold as a fluorescent light diffuser panel for suspended ceilings. It's fun stuff to vacuum form. (Acrylic panels are nice, too, but a little trickier to heat and form.)

You'll also need some basic tools:

(1) a drill and a reasonably large bit (such as 1/4"), plus a bit that's somewhat smaller than your screws

(2) a screwdriver that fits your screws

(3) an electric saw such as a portable jigsaw or circular saw, unless you have the board cut to size at the store. (That's usually free; see Step 3.)

(4) a hacksaw

(5) a miter box you can use the hacksaw with

(6) scissors

A portable jigsaw is good to have, but not strictly required. A hole saw (drill attachment) that can cut a 1 1/2" diameter hole is also nice, but not necessary.

If you make your frames of wood, you won't need the hacksaw, and maybe not the miter box.