fishooks Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Anyone ever use a vacuum former to make airbrush stencils. Care to share pics of commercial/homemade vacuum former. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrophius Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I have never vacuum formed anything. I have gotten into some costume making and when researching the stormtrooper one, I ran into this website. I cannot vouch for any of the info, but it seems pretty legit. A lot of people use this site. How To Build A Stormtrooper Costume Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Great link Atrophius. That got the cogs turning in my head. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Vacuum forming is another great method when using poly ethelene (milk cartons). A tutorial was produced a short time ago on this topic. If a left and right form is made of a bait out of whatever material you choose (steel putty, plaster etc), drill small holes symetrically and connect it to a shop vac. Lay your milk carton over the form, turn on the vacuum, and lighting wave a torch over the plastic until it turns clear. The vacuum will do the rest. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lincoya Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 For some of you "old timers" you might remember a toy that Mattel made in the late 60's called a Vac-u-form. It used a hot plate, a small sheet of styrene plastic, and hand pumped vacuum system to form small parts. It was a great little machine and worked very well as I remember. You can still find them on E-Bay. Mattel Vac U Form with nice assortment of molds - eBay (item 160321893674 end time Mar-22-09 13:26:36 PDT) Gene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benton B Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 I'm very lucky in that our prosthetics shop has a vacuum former and I'm in the process of making stencils for all of my patterns. I be able to learn to paint a decent craw pattern now:yeah: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishooks Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Looks like a vacuum former would be cheap and easy to make. A piece of peg board, shop vac and the kitchen stove. I wonder about some other applications: eyes, dots, lip mask. Any creative ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazmail Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 Great thread, thanks for the links atrophius & Gene, it certainly beats what I have been doing, burning my fingers with a heat gun. Gerry was showing us something similar at Clinton last year, but my memory and the beers had dulled it.pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coley Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 So Pete, your the one that pushed me in the pond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazmail Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 Sorry Coley, but I promised I would never tell it was Dano.pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KcDano Posted March 29, 2009 Report Share Posted March 29, 2009 (edited) Who cares anyway, Coley hasn't hit a thing with that pistol since coal was 2 dollars a ton. Edited March 29, 2009 by KcDano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonkabass Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 (edited) I have one that works like a charm-- I'll post some pics in a day or 3. Basically it is a homemade plywood/particle board box with an open bottom with a short hose connected and fitted to a hole in the top: on top of the hole and topside is a cookie sheet screwed on and sealed with hotmelt glue. The sheet has a uniformed pattern of holes drilled into it. You simply stick your shop vac to the hose on the box, set your form on top of cookie sheet with your plastic on top of the form, set a turkey oven bag on top of that to help pull down the plastic when you turn on the shop vac and use your heat gun to blast the plastic with hot air. We use 1/16-1/8" polyester sheet plastic to make painting stencils and plastic prototype lure tail blades that we are now testing in conjunction with out metal tail blades on our shad swimbait lures. You could also use it to form crankbait lips no sweat. Polyester forms in a matter of seconds, polycarbonate is tricky to thermoform like this as it will bubble up and deform if you're not careful, I think it is sensitive to the right or wrong temperatures and heating times. TG Peterson *************** Edited March 31, 2009 by redg8r Web URL Removed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonkabass Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 Here are the vacuum former pics, I apologize if they are not in proper format or size. The hose is attached to a pvc pipe coupler and then to the jig-sawed hole from underneath as shown in the pic. Any q's are welcome. TG Peterson Maxota Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonkabass Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 One more photo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
