Homemade vacuum forming machine (from fail to success)

This is my homemade vacuum forming machine first try. I want to make a metal detector coil housing but I failed at the first time.

May be due to using a too thick plastic (2mm polystyrene) or not enough temperature.

The vacuum is obtained from a small vacuum cleaner (1400W)

Here are some pictures of the device and a video.

Next time I will try with a thinner plastic or other type (ABS).

Part 2 - After some fails, the success!

Well, today I will talk about the second try. I'm using the same type of plastic - polystyrene, 2mm but now I have a thermometer so I can measure it's temperature.

I also added some screws to the frame, so I can prevent the plastic sheet from moving with the heat (because of expansion / contraction) and finally I got a good result as you can see below:

I kept the plastic in the oven until it reached about 150 degrees celsius at the center of the sheet.

Almost perfect. Not 100% because it seems I moved slightly the form out of place and it is not centered.

Here is the video of it:

Edit!

Now I made a full video (in Portuguese but with English subtitles) telling the details of my vacuum forming machine.

You can get more details about this machine in my new e-book. Get it now on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJMFHZ1P

Comments

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Cristiano Maker

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