Make a vac forming setup

Hello

can anyone's point me at any RCME mag, or any other articles/threads etc on making say a 12" x 12" vac forming setup. Mainly for canopies, spinners etc.

Cheers

mike

THIS might help

This relevant thread on this forum might help

I recently made a 15" x 13" vacform box from ply and MDF and a frame from ali angle. The frame was sized to slide under the grill in my cooker, for this reason I couldn't use bulldog clips which would have made the loading of the material much easier. With a home vacuum cleaner and a cooker the rest was just a bit of workshop time. My first and only piece came out perfectly first time.

I am just about to start making one of these also so would be interesting to see your progress mike. I've just 3d printed a mould and going to try that for the first time.

Gary

Hello

I was planning on using 3D moods too. But was wondering how a PLA mold would hold up to the heat of the hot plastic?

cheers

mike

Is there any commercial made ones? I seem to remember one some time ago.

PLA starts going soft at 60 degrees so I would guess it depends on how long the acetate sheet is in contact with the mold for. From my admittedly almost non-existent experience with vac forming, I believe it is not very long, seconds maybe, so I would think PLA would be ok as a mold providing the heat source for the acetate sheet is not heating the mold too....