Week 16. Wildcard Week¶
Vacuum Forming¶
Since there is very little time left before the final project, this week I decided to do something very simple and made some experiments with the vacuum forming machine that we built during the Fabricademy bootcamp.
I started my first experiments, and the only material we had was laminating film, so I tried to do vacuum forming using this material.
My first vacuum forming was made from the first thing I saw — it was a 10mm wrench 😄
It actually looked pretty good, so I decided to continue the experiments.
I decided to make a shape of a small garden vase and created a very simple design in Fusion. Then I split it into two parts, so with two forms I could fix them together and pour plaster or concrete inside.
After printing, I immediately started the forming process.
The result wasn’t too bad, but I realized that it wouldn’t be easy to glue two such forms together tightly enough to pour plaster inside.
So I decided to print the full shape and added some surfaces at the bottom to make sure it fully formed over the print during the vacuum forming process.
And now comes the silliest part 😄 — I decided that I could do vacuum forming with 2mm acrylic using a heat gun.
I heated it for about 10 minutes to make it as flexible as possible, but I realized the heat gun’s vent cooled it down very quickly. That’s why industrial vacuum forming machines use heaters without any air flow.
Here is a video of my struggles 😄
The result was very bad, but I understand it’s because of the heat gun. If I had a professional vacuum forming machine, I think the result would be 10 times better!
I went back to using laminating film again and tried vacuum forming with it.
From the result, I understood that the film was too small for my form, and you can see it from the edges where they got pressed in.
So I found a very thin film made specially for vacuum forming — it’s a 0.4mm PVC sheet. I also used a bigger frame to have more surface area, and the form was fully covered.
The result is much better. I understand that my form has reverse cones, which makes the forming process more difficult. But this result is good enough for me.
Then I poured plaster into the form and got a vase.
Here is Final View:
Conclusion¶
This week was full of small but useful experiments. Even though I started with simple materials like laminating film and made some mistakes—like trying to form 2mm acrylic with a heat gun—I learned a lot about the vacuum forming process. I tested different shapes, materials, and frame sizes, and found that using a 0.4mm PVC sheet gave me the best results.
I also discovered how important it is to have the right equipment and design. Reverse cones in the shape made forming more difficult, and poor heating methods gave bad results. But by adjusting my approach and testing different options, I was able to make a finished product—a small plaster vase.