ckouba wrote:
JackMcCornack wrote:
+1 for Ron's comment (and question). And while you're telling us about material and thickness, show us the pattern you used for those headlight covers...and what vacuum forming equipment?
Forget all that... What'd you promise the missus to be permitted to do it in the kitchen!??!?!??
Looks like the pattern and vacuum box are visible in the first pic?
A 2017 Honda CRV LX AWD. kidding.. as long as it doesn't stink up the house, its fair game.
I feel like this is the first few days since the winter months I've been able to post.
Plastic forming...
the material is .080 PETG, or Polyethylene terephthalate glycol, trade name spectar. Same plastic in pop bottles, good clarity, pretty resilient, but lacks rigidity. Going into this sub project was filled with unknowns. Unlike Paint, or composite, or metal fab, processes are well known and established and repeatable. This differs as the variables are far greater, namely material type, thickness, heat, time, vaccum flow, and vacuum pressure. Like Ron mentioned, it all comes together in about 3-5 mins. so, nope, I have a big pile of plastic scrap to show for those parts. you should be able to see the form in the pictures, I used two vaccums connected to the box for flow.
I have since tried acrylic in .125 to test the mold and vacuum, additional ports needed to be added and higher temps required to get a complete draw. Acrylic, being much more brittle is not ideal. poly carbonate, or lexan need to be heated for several hours to remove moisture. So before going to polycarbonate, Ill try .125 PETG next. A small back up frame will be required to help with rigidity. Have a feeling that will be the sweet spot.
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