Wildcard Week

My experience

Object for Thermoforming

Great! The process I chose for this week is called thermoforming. This process involves heating a sheet of plastic and giving it specific shapes using a mold. The molded plastic is then cooled and trimmed to produce the finished part. The process is carried out using a thermoforming machine to heat and stretch the flexible thermoplastic sheet over the mold. Because of the ease and speed with which molds can be made, it occurred to me that I could take a first approach to my final project. To start, I began to schematically design a part of Quentino, yes, a module. I wanted this module to be replicable and that the union of all these would define my Quentino in shape and size. For this, I started from a spherical shape, I still do not know the final shape of my project but for the moment I am contemplating it as something spherical and small. Well, once I chose the shape, or rather the section I want to work on, I went on to model it in 3D in the Rhinoceros program. Then I took it to the CURA program to configure it and send it to the 3D printer.

Thermoforming box parts

As a next step, it is important to develop the manufacture of a vacuum base made with wood and mdf together with my partner Stefany, we designed a small one to make the thermoforming process. Below I show some pictures of the 3D model and the laser cutting process we did, this time we used 5mm MDF wood.

Thermoforming process

The use of a wooden box as a mold in the thermoforming process is ideal for small production batches or prototypes. In addition, the wood material is easy to work with and can offer a wide variety of shapes and sizes, allowing for a wide versatility in designs.

The thermoforming machine needs to have the complement of a perforated base to place the piece on it, then the machine is turned on, the motor is activated and sucks the air generating the vacuum effect between the piece to be molded and the plastic to be thermoformed.


The idea is simple: take a sheet of plastic, heat it, and mold it into this wooden box. But here's where I want to do something different. Instead of using an oven, I'm going to use a heat gun. I have a heat gun that I normally use for smaller jobs, and while it's not the same as a kiln, I think it could work if I handle it right.



I place the sheet in the home thermoformer and adjust the heat gun to heat it evenly. If I heat it too fast, the plastic could bubble or deform in an uncontrolled way. So I start moving it slowly, letting the heat distribute itself little by little. The plastic starts to become more pliable, the heat is doing its job, but patiently.



After letting the plastic cool a bit, I carefully removed it from the box. The shape has turned out pretty well. There are a few small imperfections, but nothing I can't correct with a couple of cuts or sanding. The texture of the plastic is uniform due to the care taken not to overheat the surface.

At the end of the process, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. I am impressed by how accessible it is to do thermoforming at home, with simple tools and some creativity. The wooden box has served perfectly as a mold, and the heat gun has done a surprisingly good job. This has been a test project, but now I know I can make more pieces if I need to, and I can also keep experimenting with different shapes and materials.

Download the files here

MDF Base
Module printing