FINALLY SIMPLE VACUUM FORMING AT HOME!

FINALLY SIMPLE VACUUM FORMING AT HOME! I form small parts in real time from thin styrene. All you need is a shop-vac, heat gun(s) or oven and a tool (the part you want to replicate in plastic sheet). I made all of it from scratch plus drilled the tools and had 1 sample of .060, .040, and .030 to trim out in just over a few hrs. If you have an oven, it's able to conquer larger parts and considerable thickness, provided enough holes are drilled. For home forming 1/16 plastic parts need 1/16" holes, 1/8 plastic 1/8 holes IF you must go that large. Start small so you don't see the holes after forming.
In this video I used .030 Styrene so its tiny holes only or they start to look bad fast. Holes were .040 and drilled with 4 sided (long pointed on bench grinder) piano wire. Way faster than drill bits and almost free to make.

[@TediumGenius]

Wow what a fantastic setup! I'm very impressed with how you solved the fast draft, the quick piece transition from hot to vacuum... man, you're a great mind!
I'm supposing I'd need an actual pump and oven to be able to reform 1/4" plexiglass, right? I've done heat strip bends before and PVC pipe reforms... but I have another idea that would benefit from thicker material.

[@joesshop3622]

A pump wont give you instant rush though. You need to add a tank for that rush (vacuum storage). As soon as it hits -25 to -27 your vacuum is maxed and ready. I used a 250 gal. tank and pulled 4 foot square parts up to 18" high with it. Suffice to say a part like that exhausted all rush from a huge vacuum source. 1/4 material is tough stuff to form and hygroscopic as heck too. Material needs to be dried at around 200° for a day to be sure the forming temp doesn't cause blisters (boiling of the moisture) New material from a vendor who moves a lot of Acrylic might work for "fresh" dried material but you need to use it fast, it grabs air moisture almost like open chips in a humid summer lol.

[@FearsomeWarrior]

Very mad scientist. Love it.

[@joesshop3622]

I use to have one you could literally pull half a car inside of it in the garage for 30 years. 200AMPS just to turn it on! Ordered it from PVI with a massive 250 gallon tank. Freakin' riot, virtually automated, except the guy pushing buttons. It would get so hot in the summer 140°+ I built a tiny cardboard hut by the control panel that had its own air conditioning. That was MAD LOL!

[@FearsomeWarrior]

@@joesshop3622 I need to bring my gas remote buggy into store for the older fella there to look at. Might be lost cause after sitting so long. Remaking the plastic shell would be fun.

[@DarinKadrioski]

I wonder if sealing the form prior to making the pinholes might help prevent it from disintegrating? Not sure what sealant properties would be needed so as to not negatively impact the mold release, but perhaps just a simple spray shellac might do the trick

[@joesshop3622]

The best way is to not use plywood at all lol. If you must, give it generous radiused edges and go over it ALL with thin CA (super glue) Then sand it nice above 220 grit if you want easy removal with silicone etc. Renshape, Butter board Tooling board is what's traditionally used in the trade v/s plywood because you can gat a lot of use from a non degrading sub straight. BTW no to the shellac or epoxy coatings as repeated pulls and rapid thermal cycling destroys almost any coating made. Also, it just may stick to it like glue as the heat activates/melts the coating. Typically Styrene likes around 300° plus to form really nice.

[@ericerf6837]

That’s very cool and a simple deal. Not so simple for me to have figured it out but you made it look simple. Can I ask what this particular form was for or was it an example? Thanks.

[@joesshop3622]

Its a replica miniature of flood lights and poles. Doing scale lighting for my R/C collection with a little strip of high power 12v LED's inside! If you need ANY help I've been vacuum forming since 1980. Just sold my former that did 4 foot parts inside automatically, all I did was push buttons. I could pull .030 (1/32") to .250 (1/4") material with ease due to a 250 gallon tank! Had a PVI 404X custom made in 1991.