Good vacuum forming machine tutorial?

ERen89

Active Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #1

I know there are ways to make your own vacuum form machine. I personally do not want to use my kitchen oven so I do have an old toaster oven I am willing to disassemble. Can anyone forward me to a good tutorial on how to make your own machine? I am not talking table top size, I would like the forming surface to be at least 2'x2' or something like that. Maybe a tad smaller depending.

There are so many things online, I just do not know where to begin. And I want to follow a good reliable tutorial.

Thanks

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2018

ChickenHaunt

Sr Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #2

I have built one based on this video by Fon Davis for the Stan Winston School. I'd recommend it. https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/making-a-sci-fi-helmet-vacuum-forming-machine#

I've also used the machine in this tutorial, and can vouch for it: http://www.pepakuravault.com/PDFs/vaccumformer.pdf

There's also instructions for a 2' x 2' table in this book that I built a long time ago, though I'm not a huge fan of the flip-over design he uses: https://www.amazon.com/Prop-Builders-Molding-Casting-Handbook/dp/1558701281/

It's simple enough to adapt one or all of those to your needs.

 

Last edited: Jan 15, 2018

JFB64

Well-Known Member

• Jan 7, 2018

• #3

Try here, I've built the hobby one and it works great.

http://www.build-stuff.com/plans/

 

Zinger

Active Member

• Jan 7, 2018

• #4

I based mine off Punished Props and XRobots' tutorials. It's easy and it works. I also use a toaster oven.

- - - Updated - - -

JFB64 said:

Try here, I've built the hobby one and it works great.

http://www.build-stuff.com/plans/

Click to expand...

Someone at our Makerspace built a version of the Proto-Form which has 3 vacuum tanks. It can pull some really nice pieces.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2018

A

Alex1138

New Member

• Jan 8, 2018

• #5

I based mine off the Punished Props tutorial, and it worked out pretty well. Whichever one you do go for, I'd like to suggest keeping a record of each pull you make on it (material thickness, temperature, times, etc) so you can learn from your mistakes.

Good luck!

 

ERen89

Active Member

• Jan 11, 2018

• #6

Awesome. I may consider doing one of those larger ones when I get more space and want to build another.
I came across Volpins Instructable and have been following his.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Small-Format-Vacuumformer-from-an-Old-T/

My only hump is the heating of the oven. I got heating elements from a super old toaster oven. But I know absolutely nothing about electronics and wiring. I am even considering getting new heating elements but these work fine. Any guidance on what I can do and how to do it would be awesome

I’ll update my progress after work with photos of what I’ve got

 

tictoc

Well-Known Member

• Jan 15, 2018

• #7

I have to echo the simplicity and ease of use of XRobots oven plans. The width of the oven is only limited by the box you build.

My oven sits on the concrete garage floor with no bottom. The insulated lid sits on top. I found two of those old electric grills and just sit them side by side on the floor. One is not enough for a large oven, if you want to make armor or helmets. No real assembly or electronics to work with. Just plug and play. The oven is just scrap wood protected with metal flashing.