vaccum forming machine question?

[ScoobiJohn]

I'm building myself one and currently i'm planning on have 2 table sizes that i can use on the same system so i dont waste large sheets on small items - but i dont want to blow fuses in my garage by drawing to much power for the heating - so will 2000W 3 bar quartz infrared heater be enough for an A3 sheet 2mm thick?

thanks
John

 

[division 6]

My friends used heating elements from a dryer for their boxes.
The professional machine I used at work had some sort of heating rods.

edit:
I ment UV breaks down plastic. (sorry)
not sure of the IR.
What is the source for your elements.
Perhaps some of out mechanically inclined folks here can help.

 

[ScoobiJohn]

i'm planning on using a patio heater - i dont know if it emits uv or not to be honest - hope not i'm trying not to spend a fortune so my options are limited - when you said your friends used the elements from a dryer - what kind of dryer? hair? clothes?

 

[division 6]

Clothes Dryer.

Metal box with ceramic tile on the bottom.
Metal screen suspended about half way up to prevent anything falling on the coils and it helped spread out the heat.

Glass posts with the heating element wire zig zagged across the bottom.
It's a coiled wire.
IIRC it used the same plug as a appliance.
One of the guy's made his with kiln type tiles on the bottom and sides.

Other just used 5 coil type hot plates.

Sheets of assorted sized metal laid over the top so the opening for the plastic could be changed anywhere from 2'x3' down to 4"x4".

2'x3'x1/2" plywood vac table on risers had 1/2" neoprene sheet with a 2" hole in the middle with an elbow to attach it to the shop vac.
We used 1/8" thick pieces for acrylic as risers under the edges of the molds.
Wet down the neoprene to help protect it and also create a seal.

No waste of material like with fixed sizes.

 

[division 6]

Almost all the things we made only required a 2'x2' section of the heat box.
We only needed 2'x3' for larger parts of things like storm troopers and moria orcs.

 

[ScoobiJohn]

yeah i want to be able to configure it for different size sheets - dont think i can go bigger than A3 though - not without so many heaters that i start blowing fuses anyway but i think the patio heater is going to work - i found a bit of scrap acrylic was 5mm thick but the patio heater managed to heat it up enough that i could form a shape with it (didn't want to leave it too long as i just had it clamped over the heater so if had left it any longer would have dropped onto the heating elements) - i've ordered some 2mm sheets hopefully at that thickness it will become soft enough to use on vacuform even though will be wanting to mount the heating elements above the plastic rather than under as i did for that test

your idea for using neoprene to form a quick seal is a good one - it will make changing the size of the table much quicker than what i had planned

on another note - you dont happen to know how to tint acrylic do you? want a nice dark visor for a judge dredd helmet and a darth revan mask but no idea how - saw a vid by bill doran from punished props where he tinted some visors for adam savage but that was petg which doesn't seem quite as readily available as acrylic - not sure if that technique will work or not

 

[division 6]

You should be able to dye it with fabric dye like RIT.
But if your material is to thin it may distort if the water is to hot.
I had an X-Wing visor fold in half with some really thin plastic, not sure what kind it was.

I bought some PETG on Amazon.

You may also want to look at welders masks.
They come in assorted range of tints.