Wanting to build a thermoforming machines vacuum forming machines

[Wes Phifer]

I worked in a shop where they laid the plastic on the mold, rolled the mold under the heater. When it was hot enough they rolled the table out and sucked it down. They used large heavy angle iron to make sure the edges stayed flat and the corners were nice. It was an ancient machine that had been modified a hundred times but it worked and formed a decent face.

 

[CES020]

Hi, and welcome to the show!
So, you're only going to make one? Seems odd to go to all that trouble....

I think you might have misread that. He's only wants to make 1 giant oven to heat it, not 1 pan face. He wants to make 1 oven and many pan faces.

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I worked at a company that had capiblity to do a large face (I don't remember how large, not that big though). They had a large oven with an overhead rail system that slid the face and frame into it. The plastic would be clamped into a frame, and hung vertically on the rail system. It slid into the oven, heated, and after a couple of minutes slid out, rotated horizontally, taken off the rail and laid on the mold (a female mold, faces were screened prior to forming), vacuumed for a short time, then unclamped, and set aside...

 

[Wes Phifer]

If they screened them and used a female mold they were making a whole lot of the same face. If you are making just a few you usually make a male mold and spray them afterwards. There is another company that I have visited that heats their plastic in an upright oven clamped to the top. Then pulls it out and lays it on the form and sucks it down. They are a big company and do lots of faces wholesale across the country. They only do acrylic that way though. They have a Plastivac for the lexan. It is cool to watch but it sucks to do it all day. Maybe I'm just lazy.

 

[signmeup]

Lexan takes a crap-load of heat to form. Way more than acylic. (just a point of interest)

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

If they screened them and used a female mold they were making a whole lot of the same face.

Exactly. It was a national supplier...no longer in business.

The major problem with this is the plastic doesn't form like you think it will. All of the graphics are laid out by hand, and about 5 faces are screened, then formed. The guys in the art department would then look at the way the material moved, then go back, adjust the graphics so it would hit the mold correctly, and do 5 more faces... on and on until they hit right... lots of trial and error.

But once the faces were set, we would do hundreds at a time.

 

[Wes Phifer]

You also have to dry lexan. It stays in an oven (not hot enough to make it pliable) for 24hours or so before forming. Otherwise it gets a whole bunch of tiny bubbles in it. Looks neat but not for a sign face.

 

[Malkin]

http://www.dump.com/2011/01/21/do-it-yourself-vacform-machine-video/

Try to avoid thermoforming your toast...

 

[MikePro]

came across this youtube video... makes it look really easy to build a small-scale thermoform table:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKheUneuTc&feature=relmfu

 

[signmeup]

The cnc foam cutter looks pretty cool.

 

[theskipman_98]

We pan, emboss and paint our own faces ourselves. Granted our vacuum table and system is homemade but the oven is a different story. This thing pull some mega watts (ok maybe not that much), but the power company here regulates with its kw hour prices when we can pull faces. General rule of thumb, in the summer before 12PM and in winter after 12PM. Someone pulled a face this past winter after 12, and the owners almost had a stoke. For the time after the deadline it cost us almost as much as we normally spend in a month on electricity. Trust me you don't that money from the customer.

 

[artbot]

booom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKheUneuTc&feature=relmfu