Prop: Live from the Shop - Vacuum Forming Fails & Experiments

Bill bumbles his way through some vacuum forming failures and experiments. We all have a good laugh and learn something!

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[mikejulien]

Hey, as an ex professional window tinter, thought I'd shed some light on the first failed experiment. Window tint shrinks when you heat it, so when you put it in the toaster it crinkled as it shrank away from the surface of the plastic(which you didn't bond to the plastic in the first place).

If you want to use window tint for this, you will need to vacuform your lenses then, while the lenses are still on the buck, put on the tint(with baby shampoo and water mixture, not straight water) and then using a squeegee, some car wax on the outside of tint, and a heat gun, form the tint to the lense. Doing it while on the buck will let you put pressure on and not deform them from the heat. As you use the heat gun, you will see the tint start to crinkle, use the squeegee or card to push those spots down until the tint forms to the curve of the lense.

It may take some trial and error but that is how I would apply the technique used to tint curved rear windows to this project.

[WilliamJakespeareProps]

thanks for doing this because that's literally exactly how I would've done my first vacuform attempt and this saves me such a headache

[WilliamJakespeareProps]

those bottles have been such a lifesaver for all of my star wars helmet lenses!

[ahoudini]

Thank you for all your help on so many of my projects! You can use a heat gun and simple tools (wooden sculpting tools work well) to reheat and "massage" the hot plastic while the suction is still on to get that necking out and improve deeper details. Give it a try!

[mxferro]

First..GENTLY place your heated plastic over the buck PRIOR to vacuum and get your box edges covered to form seal THEN vac. The other thing is your platen (the peg board) holes are too larger and spaced too far away for a good sharp pull. Get perforated sheet metal with tighter spaced smaller holes and either put that directly on top of existing peg board or space it slightly with even penny thickness. The results will be more consistent and you'll start to eliminate Alot more of the spider webbing.

[ashwestaway]

this gave a great idea on how to get the detailed swirls on my crisis core buster sword, ill cut it out in foam then vac form it to get nice smooth rounded edges

[iamcoray]

I've tried heat forming pop bottle PET and the issue that I had was the plastic contracts. I think if this would work the plastic will need to be firmly bonded to the frame. I have used the Bottle PET plastic with the window tint to make lenses for several 3D printed Storm Trooper helmets. This tint and bottle PET combo worked very well for the lenses as long as compound curves were avoided.

[mxferro]

You could also vac form clear plastic and spray smoked tint that even Tamiya offers in spray cans that works really well.

[ryangarrison]

You keep turning on the vacuum after laying down the plastic? But the times you turn it on first, it turns out better.

[fearberserker]

the problem with the tint was that it had little air and water bubbles (it´s literaly imposible to take out that micro bubbles), when the air get hot, it expands, and the water baporises, it expand more than the plastic, so it made that crackled texture

[EmissaryofWind]

That EVA foam prop doesn't look so bad, if you don't mind the rounding. If that's the shape you're looking for, it's an interesting way to both round and smooth your prop and pull a lightweight copy at the same time.

[SamiRahman]

I was thinking that a foot switch for the vacuum would make the process go smoother

[markschippel]

Fun video! You game me some ideas... both good and bad. The easiest way I have found to cut out vacuum formed plastic is: 1) cut out the rough shape about 1/4 inch from the part. 2) Use medium grit sandpaper on a board an sand the pack of the part until it's the shape you want. I have built vacuumed formed models and this worked like a charm. Much easier than using scissors or a knife to get the final shape.

[sfcelebnaur]

I need to catch you when you are at Tab plastics in Bellevue, as that's the one I got to! Along with Vetco! Lightsaber makings!

[KILLA-J]

At 8:58 you can also use a heat gun with popsicle sticks or similar (not clamps) to help obtain the desired shape of the plastic

[bowdimohawk]

the soda bottle plastic is a special alloy type plastic were when heated, shrinks and malforms.

[dsl]

Great video. I was hoping to try the pop bottle plastic vacuum right away myself.

[MultiTravellingman]

At the 12:00 mark, what is the model you are making a copy of? it reminds me of Mike Magnola's art style and of Abe Sapien a bit. Looks awesome.

[origtwyg]

Question for you two, can you use a professional heat gun to continue to heat, specifically spot heat a "trouble spot?" Think this type - Wagner HT3500 1500 Watt

[macrumpton]

Bottles are made of PET which is somewhat different than PETG which has Glycol added to increase flexibility.