Its also called Vacuum Forming. But im not sure how good it would look and just wondering if anyone has seen it done?. what it does is it takes a thin sheet of plastic and heats it up and then your seal it over a mold then u turn on the vacuum and it suck the hot (not melted) plastic down over the mold. its very interesting process and i was thinking about trying to make a homemade vacu forming machine to give it a try but i dont want to go thru all that trouble if its going to look like @!#$. i found that it does not have a uniform thickness and could become a wavy surface if not doen right. but i just want to know if its been done before and if it has do you have pics.
video of it
thanks
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if i remember correctly, the stock dash is vacuum formed.
bubba made a home made vacuum form when he mad a few sets of projects for the 00-02 cavs
sndsgood wrote:how it will turn out will depend on how well of a mould you make, unless you plan on making a ton of them i wouldnt bother with making a mould, id just make the dash and be done.
well thinking about it more, you may be able to use the stock dash. if you remove all the vynal and padding, depending on how thick the plastic is, it may make up for the thickness of the vynal. if thats the case, you can strip a stock dash down, and use this vacuum to form plastic over it. it would give you the fiberglass look without having to fiberglass. then you would be able to paint it.
AWD GS wrote:bubba made a home made vacuum form when he mad a few sets of projects for the 00-02 cavs
I have that now.
But in order to vacuum form an entire dash, you would need such a large table, and plastic sheets custom cut to fit, not to mention the vacuum requirement for that. Depending on your box design, I can almost guarantee that a regular shop vac is not going to cut it....especially if using a thicker plastic. Not to mention what you are going to heat such plastic in.
I think the end result would look like a fiberglassed dash, but the cost involved in doing this yourself, you would be better off sending it out to a thermoforming company that has the proper tools for the job. Thermoforming is fun, and neat, and for small things is relatively inexpensive depending on the materials you use. But something that large would not be cost effective for you to do at home.
as far as a mold, using a stock dash would work just fine. If you were planning on making a bunch, I would consider a mold, but if you are only doing a couple, the stock dash will work fine.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Thursday, January 22, 2009 6:08 AM
well i basically just want to try it. my teacher said that i could mold one out of the dash then use a type of plaster to make a mold out of it. i basically am just thinking of a different way to make a dash look fiberglassed. but i think your right that im going to need a bigger vacuum than a shop vac. does any one know of any vacuum manufacturers?
im trying to think of a way to make a oven big enough to heat the plastic as well if any of you have ideas for that or the vacuum it will be greatly appreciated.
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make a fire and use the coals
http://www.jbodytuner.com
^^ The real jbody store!!!!!
oo then use a turbo for a vac. hahaha but im serious about the fire
http://www.jbodytuner.com
^^ The real jbody store!!!!!
Anton Miller wrote:well i basically just want to try it. my teacher said that i could mold one out of the dash then use a type of plaster to make a mold out of it. i basically am just thinking of a different way to make a dash look fiberglassed. but i think your right that im going to need a bigger vacuum than a shop vac. does any one know of any vacuum manufacturers?
im trying to think of a way to make a oven big enough to heat the plastic as well if any of you have ideas for that or the vacuum it will be greatly appreciated.
If you want to try vacuum forming, let me know, I have plans for a home vacuum former that will use a standard plastic sheet size, that you can get easily and affordably. You should be able to make several smaller pieces and have fun with it.
The dash, I would search for companies. There are several thermoforming companies that will be able to handle the capacity you are loking for.
There is no real way to make your oven big enough for that large of a sheet. Even if you made a box that would hold the frame and plastic, the side by the oven would get hotter, and you would not get an even heat....therefore a bad end product. Also, you have to consider how much sag would be needed on a sheet that size......it would be taller than inside your oven.
ive been trying to find it but we were searching on youtube at school about 2 weeks ago and found a redneck vacuforming machine that used like the coils from a toaster or somthing like that to heat the plastic. but i think ill try a few pieces first then go from there.
thanks
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yea thats what i was talking about in that post. just try it out on a couple small things. little stuff i can just do in my apartment.
thanks for the info
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only thing i have used a vacuum for is to do carbon fiber panels at work but we have our own vac heat and everything gotta love the USMC
RIP Cpl Derek Kerns And Cpl Robby Reyes
24th MEU VMM-261 (REIN) V22 Crewchiefs
11 April 2012 Morocco (African Lion)
good luck keeping the dash top from flexing while making a mold.
J03Y Esquire wrote:good luck keeping the dash top from flexing while making a mold.
easy enough...
styrofoam block/sheets trimmed/shaved/cut ect ect to the contour of the dash top...
Not worth it to do a dash with a vacuform. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of my other home made vacuformer and see if I can find pictures of some of the old work i did and currently doing
.
yea i basically am just thinking about vaccu forming little sectoins that i want to be plastic then just adding fiberglass to smooth it out then cover it with vinyl. the main thing i want to do is put cup holder and a spot for my radar detector to sit on. I just figured it would be a fun thing to do at a reletively low cost...
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You can make small things for the dash and then cut holes and fuse the plastic together. If you plan on rewrapping it vinyl that wouldn't be so bad. But to thermo form an entire dash to get a smooth fiberglass look isn't worth it. It'll be faster and cheaper to just fiberglass your dash. Because for the thickness of polystyrene you would need in order to get the dash to sit flush would be roughly .102 or .110. Those run about $80 a sheet if not more now. And assuming you never thermo formed before its kind of like a learning curve, you are going to mess up multiple times before you get one good piece in the beginning. Even with experience you can mess up at times.
As for the size your going to need to form a dash is going to roughly be 72"x36"x7 and with two 6hp shop vacs pulling. The reason I say two vacs is due to the size dimensions of the former, you could get away with one but you would need to run a 3 vacuum outlet adapter and 3 hoses to roughly 12" from each other across the bottom of the former. That would result in a loss but as long as your doing it in a good environment you should be able to pull it off.
About the connection for the vac to the former, you can do it out of PVC as well. Try with one vacuum first and see how it comes out.
Bubba 2.0 GLS wrote:Not worth it to do a dash with a vacuform. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of my other home made vacuformer and see if I can find pictures of some of the old work i did and currently doing .
Cool, I would like to see some pics of what you are working with.
KevinP (Stabby McShankyou) wrote:
and I'm NOT a pedo. everyone knows i've got a wheelchair fetish.
I could really make anything I want with it. Lets say I want to mass produce steering column boost/edfc controller pods for people. All I have to do is make a master mold and keep replicating it. I'm currently designing a replacement gauge holder for MK4 center vents. Instead of doing it out of fiberglass it will be out of polystyrene.
I really just use it for headlights though, but their is a lot of things that can be done with it.
