Kitchen table vacforming?

[ClydeBuilt]

Anyone had a go at DIY vacforming as on YouTube viddys?

I mentioned a the club last night and one of fellas had a go but I think there were problems getting the right plastic sheet.

I found a local supplier who had the PETG stuff thats used in one video, but they had polycarb, lexan and ABS coming out of their ears. Prices were sound as well, so Im going to have go at least.

Anyone any tips or other input on the idea?

[Andyp]

Hi, my dad has built a DIY vac forming machine, after much trial and error.

With the plastics, the PETG is very easy to work with but it's not ideal for rc body's , you could maybe get away with a buggy body but we found it to be too brittle for wings as they just snapped/shattered

Lexan is a brand of polycarbonate, but as well all know its what all our body's are made of, the thing with the polycarbonate is the window of error is a lot smaller, you have to get heat and timing pretty much spot on tho get good results.

One of the main problems with the polycarbonate was trying to get the right plastic so as it had a protective sheet ...

[mrspeedy]

It's do-able ... I used to do all our prototyping on a home made vac-former before we made the plunge and bought the real thing.

The best way I found was to clamp the lexan in a ply frame, heat it up in your over with the grill on max, not too close mind ... wait till the lexan droops around 2-3" and then drop it onto a sealed box with a vacuum cleaner attached and switch the vacuum on ...

.. and don't forget to dry the polycarb out first or you'll get loads of bubbles in it .... around 30mins at 100deg works well enough ...

[ClydeBuilt]

Nice big sheet of Lexan a tenner!

So Im looking forward to having a dabble at this, my current drive is a HB D4 and shells are thin on the ground. Now theres even a chance of a new cab-forward bodyshell on the cards.

Managed to find out what one of my relics was, it used to be a Kyosho Lazer apparently and again its minus a shell other than that, its a runner.
Now I can get all creative and 'design' something for that....ever see Fred Flintstone running an offroad buggy?

[akau]

Hi

I used EZFORM 1827, it is not self made but nice size so it fits to table.
For vacuuming I have small vacuum pump and industrial vacuum cleaner for extra help.

I use 1mm lexan, which is same as .040 lexan. The mold is made with CNC machine from wood and 3D model for CNC is made with Blender.

Here is one pic


Small bubles are problem, but I try to find place to dry lexan before molding.

Here with paint, not so nice painting but I was in hurry to track

[Lowie]

wouldn't it help if you perforated the mold with plenty of 1mm-holes and form a cavity in the bottom of the mold to which these holes connect?

[akau]

Yes it would, I just trying to find suitable tool to form cavity to birch plywood mold
without braking it. Those should be large enough to hit vacuum holes in table.
or I just have to make more holes to table...