Anyone done any Vacuum Forming?

[Pete Galati]

A while back, I was watching the Mythbusters episode where they rebuild Buster the crashtest dummy from scratch. And one of the things they did was carve new body parts, and then use a vacuum forming machine to make molds of the carved parts. Then the actual parts used on Buster were made in those vacuum formed molds. They poured some flesh colored stuff into the molds, and I forget what it was called.

I couldn't find any video footage of the Mythbusters using their vacuum forming machine, but there're quite a few people on youtube demonstrating how they've done it, more on a hobby level. The Mythbusters had a much more impressive rig though.

Vacuum Forming with your Kitchen Oven and Vacuum Cleaner


Vacuum forming How-to

[GhostofJohnToad]

I've done some, mostly in college. We made plates and some other housewares. It's a pretty cheap simple process. Also called thermoforming.

[metulmykul]

The guy i work for does it on a commercial basis. This is his company.
http://www.egr.com.au/

[ne4tt]

The Mattel Vacuform

One of those toys that wouldn't see the light of day today.

Jamie

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by ne4tt

The Mattel Vacuform

One of those toys that wouldn't see the light of day today.

Jamie

That's pretty cool! Even if it's really small scale.

[red57strat]

Originally Posted by ne4tt

The Mattel Vacuform

One of those toys that wouldn't see the light of day today.

Jamie

I can't imagine vacuum forming in the house! It stinks!

[Hockey Rocker]

Originally Posted by ne4tt

The Mattel Vacuform

One of those toys that wouldn't see the light of day today.

Jamie

My brothers and I had the Creepy Crawler molder. I had forgotten about that toy until I clicked on your link. Wow, what a trip down memory lane for me this morning, with this link and the WWII thread. The funny thing is that I'm in Hong Kong this morning. One of my customers here is Mattel. You're right, the Creepy Crawler would certainly never see the light of day. No one here will know that toy. I don't even think they would know it in El Segundo. Barbie had legs though.

[Pete Galati]

I remember seeing commercials for the Creepy Crawler things a few years ago, but I wasn't aware of how it worked. That's something I'd completely forgotten about because Creepy Crawlers didn't interest me.

I just watched part of the tape of last night's 2 hour Mythbusters special. On this one, they're going to try to launch a Chevy Impala with a rocket. So they got another one, and used a laser to scan it, and used a computer to cut a scaled down Impala out of a block of wood with a CNC machine. Then they used a vacuum forming machine (seemed like a different one) to make molds, so they could make scaled down Impalas for testing.

I wasn't expecting to see more vacuum molding today when I started this thread!

I'd love to have all the things that M5 shop has to work with. That'd be such an education working there.

http://www.m5industries.com/index.html

Can't say I'd wanna be on that show though!

[sdcb27]

Leather workers use them as well for form leather, for instance a holster. Really arent that difficult to build

[aznrambo481]

that stuff's really cool... I saw the mythbusters episode too! a couple years ago, some people came to my middle school to present plastic forming, and this was something else they did... really fun to watch.

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by aznrambo481

that stuff's really cool... I saw the mythbusters episode too! a couple years ago, some people came to my middle school to present plastic forming, and this was something else they did... really fun to watch.

I finished watching this week's 2 hour Mythbusters, and it ended up being a rather disappointing show. The one thing in it that was good was that they revisited the myth of an airplane blowing a taxi off the road. In the original episode they couldn't get permission to use a real airplane to do the test, and as I recall they tried to duplicate the myth with some sort of single engine rig they put together, and it did little other than damage the car. And it wasn't a very taxi like car anyhow. This time they got what appeared to be a full sized Mercury, and that seemed a little more like a taxi. And they found a shipping company of some sort that allowed them to use their airplane. And they sent that car tumbling. Did the same thing with a school bus.

But their rocket car exploded. I suspect they needed more expert advice than just having the rocket engines built for them. It was a shame too, because they demolished a really nice old Chevy in the process.

Pete

[teerjerker]

Originally Posted by ne4tt

The Mattel Vacuform

One of those toys that wouldn't see the light of day today.

Jamie

Hey! I haven't thought about that in a long time. My sister and I had a lot of fun with that little rig back in the day. Aah, the smell of melting styrene...

[Buckocaster51]

When I was a kid, I had BOTH a vacuum former and a creepy crawler molder thing.

Still got 10 fingers and 2 eyes.



Not gonna mention the scars, but the parts are still all here and work.

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

When I was a kid, I had BOTH a vacuum former and a creepy crawler molder thing.

Still got 10 fingers and 2 eyes.



Not gonna mention the scars, but the parts are still all here and work.

Did those things tend to burn you with hot styrene if you weren't careful?

Remember the earlier threads about the Telecaster bodies covered with drum skin material? Was vacuum forming one of the possible explanations for how they did that? I don't really remember what the possible explanations were by now. I couldn't really detect any seams in the material covering my Lap Steel guitar, and I fully expected to. However they did it, it had to involve a heat.

[Booman]

Well Bucko I had a Vacuform and a Frieght Factory as a kid. I'm in the composite/areospace industry and I'm still doing the polymer science thing. Some kids never grow up.

[Ice9]

Pete....

Ive used vac forming.Ive used a machine I made to make lexan HO scale slot car bodies.I carve a mold,or "buck"out of a mold I cast with plaster of paris.The buck can be reused many times.

Do a Google and search for "candy making,vaccuum forming".

That was my original introduction to vac forming,as I am a chef by trade.

The candy vac form machines would be perfect for what you probably would want to do.


Hope that helped some....

Mike

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Ice9

Pete....

Ive used vac forming.Ive used a machine I made to make lexan HO scale slot car bodies.I carve a mold,or "buck"out of a mold I cast with plaster of paris.The buck can be reused many times.

Do a Google and search for "candy making,vaccuum forming".

That was my original introduction to vac forming,as I am a chef by trade.

The candy vac form machines would be perfect for what you probably would want to do.


Hope that helped some....

Mike

Thanks.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of making a mold of a guitar body, than covering one. Not that I have any good ideas of what to pour into the mold. I think a natural thing to pour in would be some sort of MDF type of slurry, but things made of MDF tend to be heavier than they need to be.

My "Switch" guitar, which was made out of some some sort of synthetic material that they call "Vibracell" which is probably actually a material that was already in use in some other industry. I should probably go into the control cavity, and carve out a chunk of the stuff and take a look at it. It's something designed by Trev Wilkinson who designed those Tele bridges with the compensating saddles.

I was just kicking around ideas in my head. I'm not actually likely to build a guitar body that way because I prefer wood bodies.

If I ever get around to building another guitar body, I'll probably do something like make a 6-piece body, and chamber the wings before I glue it together. I have the tools do do something like that, but I really don't like working with power tools anymore.

Pete

[Ice9]

Originally Posted by Pete Galati

Thanks.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of making a mold of a guitar body, than covering one. Not that I have any good ideas of what to pour into the mold. I think a natural thing to pour in would be some sort of MDF type of slurry, but things made of MDF tend to be heavier than they need to be.

My "Switch" guitar, which was made out of some some sort of synthetic material that they call "Vibracell" which is probably actually a material that was already in use in some other industry. I should probably go into the control cavity, and carve out a chunk of the stuff and take a look at it. It's something designed by Trev Wilkinson who designed those Tele bridges with the compensating saddles.

I was just kicking around ideas in my head. I'm not actually likely to build a guitar body that way because I prefer wood bodies.

If I ever get around to building another guitar body, I'll probably do something like make a 6-piece body, and chamber the wings before I glue it together. I have the tools do do something like that, but I really don't like working with power tools anymore.

Pete

It would be interesting tho to cast a guitar.But I would do one piece,neck and body as one.Like a Parker.Which are interesting guitars,as long as you approach them without comparing them to traditional wood guitars.They stand on there own.Would love to have one,but they can remain to stand on their own as long as they keep charging the high jack for the good ones.

With all due respect to Mr Wilkerson,I doubt he is a chemist.In other words,the material he is using must have some other application.Car parts,skateboards,skis....who knows.Maybe I'll poke around on the mighty Google and see what I come up with.

Back to the casting tho.It could be done with a little research and ingenuity.

Mike

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Ice9

It would be interesting tho to cast a guitar.But I would do one piece,neck and body as one.Like a Parker.Which are interesting guitars,as long as you approach them without comparing them to traditional wood guitars.They stand on there own.Would love to have one,but they can remain to stand on their own as long as they keep charging the high jack for the good ones.

With all due respect to Mr Wilkerson,I doubt he is a chemist.In other words,the material he is using must have some other application.Car parts,skateboards,skis....who knows.Maybe I'll poke around on the mighty Google and see what I come up with.

Back to the casting tho.It could be done with a little research and ingenuity.

Mike

My Switch guitar is one piece, body & neck too. Seems like it has to have been molded somehow.

I had a picture of it uploaded, but Comcast hosed all my amplifier images, and my Switch guitar was with those! I'll have to see if this one's small enough to attach.

It's actually kind of fun at first, but in a week, it started bugging me that it had no wood tone to it. The only wood in it, is the fingerboard!

[Ice9]

Originally Posted by Pete Galati

My Switch guitar is one piece, body & neck too. Seems like it has to have been molded somehow.

I had a picture of it uploaded, but Comcast hosed all my amplifier images, and my Switch guitar was with those! I'll have to see if this one's small enough to attach.

It's actually kind of fun at first, but in a week, it started bugging me that it had no wood tone to it. The only wood in it, is the fingerboard!

I Googled the Switch guitars.VEry interesting,as well as reasonably priced.Must do more research.

Pete most of the stuff I do is hard rock metal.And on my own I do jazz fusion progressive mish mosh music.

I lay through a Boogie MKIII,with a pretty searing tone,and my next purchase is one of the Soldano high gain amps.So a "wood tone" doesnt come into play as much as me looking for a guitar that sustains more on its own.

Are the pickups bolted directly to the body,or are they in pu rings?????Ive been experimenting lately with mounting pu's directly to the body.

Mike

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Ice9

I Googled the Switch guitars.VEry interesting,as well as reasonably priced.Must do more research.

Pete most of the stuff I do is hard rock metal.And on my own I do jazz fusion progressive mish mosh music.

I lay through a Boogie MKIII,with a pretty searing tone,and my next purchase is one of the Soldano high gain amps.So a "wood tone" doesnt come into play as much as me looking for a guitar that sustains more on its own.

Are the pickups bolted directly to the body,or are they in pu rings?????Ive been experimenting lately with mounting pu's directly to the body.

Mike

Hard to say if you'd notice the lack of wood or not with that much gain. Not that I don't tend to put a lot of gain in front of amps. The Switch has a lot of clarity, which was what attracted me to it. Some ebayer that me and a friend visited had an orange version of the one I bought (It's called a "Wild IV" as in four, not intravenous). The necks are actually very good, and you can set the action very close. If you're one of the people who hate thin necks, you might not like the Switch, because this one's neck's very thin. A lot thinner than a Fender C neck. The access to the upper frets is very poor IMO.

The pickups are in pickup rings.

I'm not sure if you can see it in that picture, but the body has 3 levels. You can see the lines across the top. That part of the design is very comfortable.

I wished it had separate volume controls for each pickup. I never decided if I could comfortably fit another volume control in there. But the controls are located rather well IMO.

Pete

[Ice9]

Originally Posted by Pete Galati

Hard to say if you'd notice the lack of wood or not with that much gain. Not that I don't tend to put a lot of gain in front of amps. The Switch has a lot of clarity, which was what attracted me to it. Some ebayer that me and a friend visited had an orange version of the one I bought (It's called a "Wild IV" as in four, not intravenous). The necks are actually very good, and you can set the action very close. If you're one of the people who hate thin necks, you might not like the Switch, because this one's neck's very thin. A lot thinner than a Fender C neck. The access to the upper frets is very poor IMO.

The pickups are in pickup rings.

I'm not sure if you can see it in that picture, but the body has 3 levels. You can see the lines across the top. That part of the design is very comfortable.

I wished it had separate volume controls for each pickup. I never decided if I could comfortably fit another volume control in there. But the controls are located rather well IMO.

Pete

Looks like it has those railroad tie frets too.I have those on one of my guitars,I could take them or leave them.

Im kind of gettin GAS again,as you guys say.Thinking of another guitar,that one you showed could be a candidate.

Sorry to hijack your thread.Im still intiguied by the whole casting a guitar concept.Im off the next two days,so I will do some research,and pop back on this thread if I find anything of interest.

Mike

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by Ice9

Looks like it has those railroad tie frets too.I have those on one of my guitars,I could take them or leave them.

Im kind of gettin GAS again,as you guys say.Thinking of another guitar,that one you showed could be a candidate.

Sorry to hijack your thread.Im still intiguied by the whole casting a guitar concept.Im off the next two days,so I will do some research,and pop back on this thread if I find anything of interest.

Mike

I never mind threads I start getting hijacked. I learn more if they do actually.

By "railroad tie frets", do you mean jumbo frets?

I wish I could get at it, but I'm sort of building an Esquire on top of the case it's sitting in now. It'd be really inconvenient to get at the thing.

Every once in a while, the Switch Tele knockoff gets mentioned in the ugly Tele knockoff threads.



Pete