Vacuum Forming

In the spirit of pushing a drawing as far as possible, we made molds of two 3D printed figures with vacuum forming at Quelab.

ETHAN'S 3D DRAWING

The best figure was created and 3D printed by Ethan Moses during an Onshape workshop he gave last August 2020.  We vacuum formed it during hack night on July 21st:

Vacuum formed mold

of figure created and 3D printed by Ethan Moses

during the Onshape workshop in August 2020

An ice cube

cast from the vacuum formed mold

Animated version of the same figure

created in the Onshape workshop in August 2020

The small vacuum former from Atlas Resell.  Below is the basic set-up:

The basic set up 

before turning on

Adric recommended this video by Adam Savage below:

 Adam Savage explains vacuum forming

 with this small machine

by Adam Savage

• Port Plastics would be a source of material in Albuquerque 

Adric also adds:

 "P.S. Cheap #6 PS plastic plates* (not foam) work pretty well if you cut the rim off. you can also buy a number of types and thicknesses and colors/clear of thermoplastics. and cut them into 5x5ish.  actually did 3 5x5 pulls side by side as well. "

*cheap plastic picnic plates

MY 3D PRINTED DRAWING

The Wednesday before, on July 14th, we started with one of my drawings (AI collaboration with Pavel Acevedo):

February 19, 2019

We started with this drawing/print

This drawing was extruded in 3D Builder and then 3D printed:

My drawing was 3D printed at Quelab

on May 22nd

The basic set-up, with the corn starch "mold release":

We lightly dusted the 3D print 

by running my finger over it with Corn Starch,

which served as a mold release

We had to first drill some holes into the 3D print.  Otherwise the vacuum could not pull the hot plastic around the whole figure:

Drilling holes into the 3D print

Clear dental vacuum forming 

see thru plastic sheets

The Process:

• Insert rectangular plastic sheet in the holder
• Turn on top heater with red switch at the bottom, raise the plastic towards the heater
• Heat the plastic so that it droops, about the same distance as the original piece is high
• Pull the hot plastic sheet and holder down quickly over the object, and flip the vacuum switch

The Process

The see thru vacuum formed mold

next to the 3D printed original

We repeated the process with a different kind of plastic, styrene:

Vacuum forming with styrene

Before "demolding"

Various molds

My drawing was probably too convoluted to begin with, however the process worked.  It would probably look better if we started with a simpler form (perhaps one derived from relief prints).

A decade ago, in 2011, I commissioned someone in Tucson to make a mold from one of my drawings, which I then had cast in chocolate with the Candy Lady in Albuquerque.  He must have used vacuum forming to make the mold:

My drawing cast in chocolate in 2011

from a vacuum mold