LibertMKiii's Vacuum forming attempt

[LibertyMKiii]

After making carbon fiber Stream liner bodies and finding it takes me 1 month of hard labor to make a body... I am ready to try plastic.
If you have not seen it before the process is using a solid form of the car (called a buck) slightly under sized, and placing it on top of a vacuum table. The second part of the process is heating a sheet of plastic to a magical perfect amount, and then carefully pushing it over the buck while introducing vacuum to pull the air out.
I am expecting lots of trial and error so I will begin with 1/10 on-road bodies. The 12x36" sheets are $10 shipped to my door versus $60 For the sheet size needed for a 1/7 scale. I will hopefully get to those later!

The goal is to have one vac table and then 2 size frames for the 1/10 or 1/7 plastics.

Making the frame to hold the 12x36" plastic. I used a router to make a groove that holds it in place.

With the plastic in place:

Top piece that holds the plastic in the middle (like a sandwich)

Building the vacuum box next. I was ambitious with the grid and then realized maybe don't want that many holes....

I'll have a seperate fixture to heat the plastic. Hopefully my old toaster oven will do the job:

Lots lots lots more work to do!

 

[jondilly1974]

Wow looks daunting. Good luck. ??

 

[The Donut Man]

Following. Hope this works out!

 

[Camaroboy383]

Love this!?.. Been thinking about making a setup for quite some time, but always to many irons in the fire!.?‍..

What did you have planned for the vac? Big shop vac?

From what I have seen the hardest part is learning the plastic, how much and how long on the heat.. learning just the right amount of droop..

This is going to be awsome man.. you will get it no doubt..?

 

[Hammer Down]

I literally just finished watching Adam Savage rebuild his vacuum forming machine. Pretty cool stuff, looking forward to seeing your projects. ?

Here’s the vid I watched, maybe it will give you some ideas.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Love this!?.. Been thinking about making a setup for quite some time, but always to many irons in the fire!.?‍..

What did you have planned for the vac? Big shop vac?

From what I have seen the hardest part is learning the plastic, how much and how long on the heat.. learning just the right amount of droop..

This is going to be awsome man.. you will get it no doubt..?

Agreed, it seems that learning the plastic droop is the key to success.

From what I have read the shop vac by design moves big cfm, but often does not create much vacuum in a water lift tests. Dyson home vacs seem to have some of the highest numbers in testing comparisons, but I would need two of them. I have found older models or ones with issues with the roller brush online used for around $30 each.
My other option is to use my vacuum pump, and some air tanks to create the volume needed (a minimum of 14 gallons). This one would likely work well, but would be expensive to setup the plumbing. For now I believe I will go the route of finding two used Dyson vacuums.

The "real" setups use a metal buck that has 2 big benefits. #1 it can be heated, which helps the process, and also they often put very small hoes in cavities/large flat areas to help the air evacuate. My plaster buck likely will be to sensitive for both heating, and drilling holes through it. I have some ideas for giving the large flat areas strength that may also help with extracting the air.

I literally just finished watching Adam Savage rebuild his vacuum forming machine. Pretty cool stuff, looking forward to seeing your projects. ?

Here’s the vid I watched, maybe it will give you some ideas.

Oh yes, I have seen his. He has another also. As you can Imagine, I have been researching for the past few months on this.

 

[Doom!]

I hope all goes well, sounds like you've got a handle on it. I understand the basic concept, but the hows and whys are way beyond me. this is going to be cool to watch.

 

[rotauq]

some day i will try this too

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I really like this video and his walkthrough is great.

 

[rotauq]

It looks so easy this way. Lot's some 3d print-like design constrains and only 1 shot (per sheet)
But once you have your setup working its much less work then to layer epoxy on a 3d print/clayform

For now i just ordered the delta plastics jaguar XRS body. I promised myself to spend less time in fusion360

 

[LibertyMKiii]

It looks so easy this way. Lot's some 3d print-like design constrains and only 1 shot (per sheet)
But once you have your setup working its much less work then to layer epoxy on a 3d print/clayform

For now i just ordered the delta plastics jaguar XRS body. I promised myself to spend less time in fusion360

Yes if the process is dialed in it should be very fast. I am curious if a PLA printed buck would hold up in this process, or if the heat from the plastic sheet would deform the 3d print if its only hot for 30 seconds or less.

 

[jondilly1974]

Yes if the process is dialed in it should be very fast. I am curious if a PLA printed buck would hold up in this process, or if the heat from the plastic sheet would deform the 3d print if its only hot for 30 seconds or less.

Maybe if you anneal the print ??‍

 

[Camaroboy383]

Yes if the process is dialed in it should be very fast. I am curious if a PLA printed buck would hold up in this process, or if the heat from the plastic sheet would deform the 3d print if its only hot for 30 seconds or less.

Can always use pla+ or petg..

 

[rotauq]

PLA top layer will definitely soften up, but as it's vacuumed into place and enclosed by the plastic it has no place to deform toward. It should survive a few runs. Petg will hold up much longer indeed

 

[CameronCodes]

After making carbon fiber Stream liner bodies and finding it takes me 1 month of hard labor to make a body... I am ready to try plastic.
If you have not seen it before the process is using a solid form of the car (called a buck) slightly under sized, and placing it on top of a vacuum table. The second part of the process is heating a sheet of plastic to a magical perfect amount, and then carefully pushing it over the buck while introducing vacuum to pull the air out.
I am expecting lots of trial and error so I will begin with 1/10 on-road bodies. The 12x36" sheets are $10 shipped to my door versus $60 For the sheet size needed for a 1/7 scale. I will hopefully get to those later!

The goal is to have one vac table and then 2 size frames for the 1/10 or 1/7 plastics.

Making the frame to hold the 12x36" plastic. I used a router to make a groove that holds it in place.
View attachment 104101
With the plastic in place:
View attachment 104102
Top piece that holds the plastic in the middle (like a sandwich)
View attachment 104103

Building the vacuum box next. I was ambitious with the grid and then realized maybe don't want that many holes....
View attachment 104104

I'll have a seperate fixture to heat the plastic. Hopefully my old toaster oven will do the job:
View attachment 104105

Lots lots lots more work to do!

Is that a 917 body? Also YOU MAKE CARBON FIBER

 

[jondilly1974]

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Over the past weekend I got some good garage time and was able to complete the "heater box"
One perk to living in a new construction neighborhood is access to construction trash piles. After they roofed the house next door I was able to pickup some particle board that was laminated with TechShield radiant barrier. I was originally planning on using aluminum foil but this works better!

The base is small fitting tight to 4 element toaster oven and has the controls on the outside of the box at the bottom:

Since I wanted to use one setup for 1/7 scale and 1/10 scale, this one being 1/10 scale has a lot of unused surface area holding the plastic. Fingers crossed it all works ok!

Next I will be adding the ports on the Vacuum box to hook up my shop vac and house hold vac. Hoping my breaker in the garage can handle both at the same time. The shop vac is 6.5hp and pulls some serious watts.

I left the box with very minimal air space to help with the vacuum process. All sealed with silicone in the seams of the wood. I'll add some legs on it also to make it easier to work with while standing. Also need to install the rubber seal around the top edges, which makes the seal to the frame holding the plastic. I bought some automotive rubber door seal last night and will see how it does. Also need to wipe clean the over zealous chalk line grid

 

[Doom!]

Looks like your going to need to start over, those line widths aren't consistent! ? ? Lookin' good, can't wait to see how she works out.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Tried to do a test today, and the plastic only got up to 140 F. just enough to dip a little in the center but not nearly hot enough. Looks like it will have to try some quartz heaters. #bummed

 

[Doom!]

Can you shorten the depth of the box to get the plastic closer to the heat, or do yo think it wouldn't matter? I don't know squat about this stuff, so I'm curious.