What's on your workbench? (no Star Wars, Marvel or DC stuff)

Re: What's on your workbench?

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I've been working on the Malcom Reynolds (tv version) pistol. Almost done!

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Re: What's on your workbench?

Not really on the bench but on the floor... My heater unit for the female tooled vacuum former is finally producing the heat I need. I have had the chamber and pump working for a while now but always struggled with the heat.

There are 3 parts to vacuum forming and if any one part fails, the whole thing fails.

Those 3 parts are -
1. heat. I can now get well over 200 degrees C. So whilst 110 degrees C works for ABS, I need 150 degrees C for polycarb and 180 degrees C for perspex.

2. seal. I have spend some serious coin on this system and seals were about $150. I ended up buying sheets of a high temperature rubber and cutting them out myself. They could have made them for me at twice the price. I have recently spend over $500 on frames and this heating box.

3. suction. Most people use shop vacuum cleaners for suction. I have a 9cfm vacuum pump and 30 litre chamber that I can connect to my large chamber to act as a surge tank. Because my goal is to be able to pull thick plastic, I needed way more than the -6"Hg of a typical vacuum cleaner. I have managed to get a full -30"Hg on a smaller test rig where I was able to form 5mm thick perspex. I have also been able to pull 6mm polycarb.

Basically, this heater is a rework of @x-robots patio heater design, but using a 3 ring gas burner and a fan. Both the burner and the fan are 250mm Dia. The burner has adjustable air intakes and ball valves but I did not want to be reaching inside the hot box to make an adjustment, so I went to a local gas fitter and had him make up an elbow and ball valve extension that sits flush with the outside. I can now turn the heat down via the single ball valve.

The rig is 800mm (internal) box made from16mm MDF with a 0.6mm aluminium flume going from 250mm to about 750mm at about 700mm high.

The burner sits on the base centred below the flume. Previously I was struggling to get 150 degrees C. My engineer friend suggested fan forced air to created higher temps. So I added a fan I had made a few years ago for another project and got amazingly hot temps.

I have run 2 tests this morning and very impressed with the results. Heating time is a quite a bit faster than electric heaters and is hot all the way to the edge of the frame. My electric fan forced heater could only really do 250mm surface. This should do the full 800mm.

So I am just waiting now for a frame to come back from being welded up. Then I should be able to heat up some plastic.

Yes I am doing this outside.
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Re: What's on your workbench?

It's awesome yo see others making vac tables. It's been almost 15 years since I built my little table.

photobucket.com/user/arsonsmith/Vacuumtable/story
Not really on the bench but on the floor... My heater unit for the female tooled vacuum former is finally producing the heat I need. I have had the chamber and pump working for a while now but always struggled with the heat.

There are 3 parts to vacuum forming and if any one part fails, the whole thing fails.

Those 3 parts are -
1. heat. I can now get well over 200 degrees C. So whilst 110 degrees C works for ABS, I need 150 degrees C for polycarb and 180 degrees C for perspex.

2. seal. I have spend some serious coin on this system and seals were about $150. I ended up buying sheets of a high temperature rubber and cutting them out myself. They could have made them for me at twice the price. I have recently spend over $500 on frames and this heating box.

3. suction. Most people use shop vacuum cleaners for suction. I have a 9cfm vacuum pump and 30 litre chamber that I can connect to my large chamber to act as a surge tank. Because my goal is to be able to pull thick plastic, I needed way more than the -6"Hg of a typical vacuum cleaner. I have managed to get a full -30"Hg on a smaller test rig where I was able to form 5mm thick perspex. I have also been able to pull 6mm polycarb.

Basically, this heater is a rework of @x-robots patio heater design, but using a 3 ring gas burner and a fan. Both the burner and the fan are 250mm Dia. The burner has adjustable air intakes and ball valves but I did not want to be reaching inside the hot box to make an adjustment, so I went to a local gas fitter and had him make up an elbow and ball valve extension that sits flush with the outside. I can now turn the heat down via the single ball valve.

The rig is 800mm (internal) box made from16mm MDF with a 0.6mm aluminium flume going from 250mm to about 750mm at about 700mm high.

The burner sits on the base centred below the flume. Previously I was struggling to get 150 degrees C. My engineer friend suggested fan forced air to created higher temps. So I added a fan I had made a few years ago for another project and got amazingly hot temps.

I have run 2 tests this morning and very impressed with the results. Heating time is a quite a bit faster than electric heaters and is hot all the way to the edge of the frame. My electric fan forced heater could only really do 250mm surface. This should do the full 800mm.

So I am just waiting now for a frame to come back from being welded up. Then I should be able to heat up some plastic.

Yes I am doing this outside. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180430/ee692aa8056b3d94502deb033c780c73.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180430/45c45baee16ef1dbe287f7af8d9dc6b6.jpg

Sent from my CPH1701 using Tapatalk

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Re: What's on your workbench?

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Four Predator helmets in the last month have passed through my workbench...Have a Wolf Predator coming in for paint, and that will be the last Pred Bio I’m doing.. I think!

I’ve also got a Robocop chest and helmet set I’m prepping for paint for a collector on this forum. That’s gonna be such a fun one!
 
Re: What's on your workbench?

Built 2 new e11's, black and white, but changed the white to silver. Had 2 left over AMF Falcons, missing lots of parts, so I turned them into wall ornaments and I've got a TFA Tie Fighter, that I'll convert to a more ANH Tie, so new scratch built wings to do.

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Re: What's on your workbench?

I'd say at the moment not anything that everyone else here would be impressed by. Note I'm very humble so I always kinda under sale myself. But on my current list for my Lego customs I have Mighty Morphing Red Power Sword, Mighty Morphing Green Ranger Dragon Shield, and to create the base for all my future helmets so a generic ranger helmet one of two based (One with mouth plate one without) these are two part helmets like the Voltron Minifigure I picked up at Comiccon this year.

I just need a few more bits for my dremel to really get cracking. That and to figure the best method to make the blade edge for the swords, axes and such that I'm making. Also got to buy some Silicone mold maker and resin for casting. ABS Resin if I can since that's the same plastic type as Lego and I want quality as well as quantity. Mold the master blank and use it to make multi molds. Glad I got sprew to connect this with and make my pour spouts. Thank you Mini-pla Megazord.
 
Re: What's on your workbench?

Designed and 3D printed Lost in Space season 2/3 laser pistol. Refined all the parts now on to finishing.

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Re: What's on your workbench?

Not really "on the workbench", but recently removed from it. Predator skull by Monsteroom. Much more 1:1 scale than the GreyZon kit from years back, the biggest obstacle was attaching the big mandibles. There are no keys to attach the mandibles to the skull, so you have to guess and HOPE they go on and you can get both sides to look equal...much harder than you'd think. I also tried pinning the parts which didn't work to well, and then the epoxy I used didn't cure well in the beginning and the parts started to sag. Anyway, I eventually got that all fixed and have it on a "place holder" display stand, to get it out of the way until I fashion something better.

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Re: What's on your workbench?

I saw this Nerf pistol in the store and was immediately inspired. Now for the putty to fill in the gaps and paint to go over it:
View attachment 823137

Oh man, I was the same. In fact just 20 minutes ago I looked at one again at Target and thought - I’d love to mod that! Please share your build. Or at least the finished paint job! I’d love to see what you do with it.
 
Re: What's on your workbench?

Oh man, I was the same. In fact just 20 minutes ago I looked at one again at Target and thought - I’d love to mod that! Please share your build. Or at least the finished paint job! I’d love to see what you do with it.
Sure thing, man! Here's the finished product. I used sculpting putty to fill in the lettering on the one side, as well as some of the gaps and then painted over it:
 
Re: What's on your workbench?

I hope to have time this weekend to work on my Comlocks, I'm done with all the buttons,
both capacitive and tactile and will be installing the mp3 players and boost regulators. I tend
to go very slow when anything I do could turn out well or very badly......:D

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