[slicerd1]

Just posting some pics of my pack. It took me a while about 1.5 months to get this far mostly working on Sundays. The plan is to pull about 4 vacuum shells from this maybe more if other friends are interested.

It has been fun I got to use my router a lot even made a DIY router table. I know it isn't 100% screen accurate but since it's going to be a vac shell it never will be.

With that being said if you notice any major issues let me know. Also any other pro tips for vacuum forming would be great I already did some really early test pulls with thin styrene and learned a lot already.

Pack pieces dry fit together. The spacer ribs have yet to be attached (Ignore any extra bondo it was still drying)


Side view


Gearbox and Gun mount


Power Cell


More Gearbox


Cyclotron + Spacer + Cosmetic Plating Spacer thingy


I plan on updating more especially when I do some pulls. I should have posted more when I started now most of the pieces are already created and I have do the prep/gluing/sanding

[propcicle]

Looks really good so far. Glad to see more scratch packs on here.

[Hoot]

Looks great! Just a question.... How do you plan to reinforce the Ion Arm after a vacuum mold has been done?

[slicerd1]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

I am planning on the ion arm being done as a separate piece(s) which seems to be pretty common for vac packs. I will likely reinforce with wood/epoxy on both sides and then attach with a couple bolts & washers. I am probably going to reinforce the whole back with fiberglass which i don't really want to do but I want it to be as sturdy as possible.

[Lowberg]

Looks great! I really envy you scratch builders. So much talent!

[slicerd1]

Another Sunday and more work on the pack.

Added the ribs (or whatever they are called) around the cyclotron. Also added two little thumbtacks to the EDA which I am not sure is screen accurate or not but I have seen others do it and I thought it looked cool.


Below you can see more detail on the ribs and you can also see the many little 1/16" holes that I made to help air escape during the vacuum forming process. I wanted to make them as small as possible to keep them from being seen in the final product.


Just another view.


A view of the top of the pack where you can see I added some more of the tiny holes to help air escape. I tried to place them underneath areas that will be covered by other parts. I will probably add a few more before I am done.


Below are the "spacer" plates that I created to help with the vacuum forming process. The idea behind these are two fold, they will move everything up to help reduce webbing of the parts. I will also attach all the parts to them and that should allow for easier removal from the vacuum form. The many holes are to allow air easily escape from between the pieces and from the many tiny holes I drilled in the middle of parts. This is similar in effect to what I have seen other people do I don't know how well it will work but I am crossing my fingers.


I plan on calling around locally to find high impact polystyrene but unless everything goes perfectly I probably wont have time to start doing vacuum pulls until early next month. But I still have to work on the gun body and bumper so I wont be twiddling my thumbs.

[slicerd1]

Another Sunday and bumper was born! Creating the bumper was all we got done this Sunday but it went pretty well and it is not a particularly easy part. I also created the 2nd piece for the ion arm I will vac form both then glue them together and make a fake weld line to cover up the seem. Getting close to vacuum forming so any pro tips are very welcome.

I realized I forgot to make a bumper spacer to help reduce webbing for the vacuum forming. All the other pieces already have an extra half inch spacer. Once the spacer is done everything will be ready to get formed. I am a little nervous about how well that will go and will need to make some frames for holding the plastic and heater. I still need to call some local places to see who sells styrene in the thickness I want and for a decent price. I be out of town next weekend so no updates for a while.

Here was the work this weekend. Bumper and Ion arm. You can see that the Bumper was designed to have a "shelf" that I can use as a line to cut the extra plastic away from the final product.


Top view:


Another Top view: Its weird how rough stuff looks but I guess that's just from the setting sun I all feels pretty smooth and has been sanded.

[nick-a-tron]

Thats beautiful work!

[Alan Hawkins]

If you get good pulls from the bumper you should consider selling those by themselves. (If you meet all the seller requirements of course.)

Great work so far!

[slicerd1]

Thanks for the kind words Nick. I have seen your stuff so it means something coming from you.

Alan, I am pretty nervous/excited about doing the pulls, webbing/detail/heating issues etc, so we will see how it goes. I emailed people today and found a local guy with .060" HIPS for $30 a sheet so I will probably pick that up next week. I did test pulls with really thin plastic and found that I really need a good seal so I will be working on a really good frame to hold the plastic.

[Alan Hawkins]

D42 had a pretty good vac form build thread somewhere on the site, have you seen that?

[slicerd1]

Oh yeah his was one of the threads that made me think I might be able to pull this off. He is actually in the same state(AZ) and I contemplated reaching out to purchase some pulls but decided to build my own in the end.

He has a pretty fancy homemade vacuum forming setup mine wont be as good but still crossing fingers that I can get good pulls.

Edit: For those looking for the D-42 thread its below and very detailed I have used it as a reference quite a few times.
http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... =2&t=21643

[slicerd1]

Back in town again and I have some good news and bad news.

First the good, I did the first pull on the vacuum forming rig and it looks pretty good a little bit of webbing but hopefully I can improve that.

The bad, I cant remove the plastic from the model/positive/buck. I need to buy a tool to remove the extra plastic but the whole wooden model is really stuck in there and I don't know how to remove it without destroying the pull. This pull was for the lower section which is mostly one large piece, hopefully the upper section will not have the same issues because it separates into more pieces. If I cant remove it I will destroy the plastic then try to separate the model into more pieces, this will be a pain because they are glued together but I cant think of what else to do.

If anybody has pro tips on how to remove stuff from vacuum molds please let me know.

Also bad, it is full on summer in AZ now and I think I almost gave myself heat exhaustion from working outside all day. I was really excited about doing the pulls and just didn't want to stop. Eventually forced myself inside when I started feeling woozy.

Built this box to heat the plastic


Inside is covered in aluminum foil and you can see the heater at the bottom. It heats pretty well but I had to make a cover to contain the heat escaping from the top.


My vacuum table is literally just a sheet of laminated wood with a hole in it and brackets to help align the whole thing.


The whole jury rigged setup.


First pull details are pretty good but I think next time I will get the plastic hotter.


Some more detail of the ribs on the side I think they look pretty good. Remember there is a spacer lifting the whole thing up so I will cut 1/2" off the bottom.


Here you can see the webbing I did get. I am hoping heating the plastic up some more will reduce this along with making a few more holes for air to escape around these areas.


One more shot of the problem area. I am really pleased with the detail here so hopefully I can reduce the webbing and it will be good. Of course I need to get the mold out first

[nick-a-tron]

That looks great! Shame the buck is wedged in. Hope you find a fix soon because those are some purdy forms!!

[slicerd1]

That looks great! Shame the buck is wedged in. Hope you find a fix soon because those are some purdy forms!!

Thanks Nick, It was pretty late in the afternoon by the time I did the pull and the heat was getting to me so I didn't really have time to form a game plan to get the buck out. I need to get an attachment for my multi tool to cut off excess plastic then I'm going to try using a putty knife (or similar) to release the plastic around all the edges. We will see how that goes.

[slicerd1]

So it has been a while since I have posted partly because I have been busy with work but mainly because we came to a full stop when trying to Vacuum form our first pieces. It has been impossible to remove the bucks from the plastic molds without destroying the mold itself. So it has been pretty heart breaking to get some nice looking pulls only to destroy them and damage the bucks in the process. See pics below for my destroyed pulls.

I did some searching and couldn't find much on mold release until I went back to the studio creations site. I don't know how I missed it before but he specifically calls out "Coating the porous wood with a mold release is crucial for getting the plastic off the mold once vacuum-formed." So I need to buy some of the mold release and crossing my fingers that it works, I can only find it as a case so $65 so it better work.

I am camping this weekend so I will probably order mold release and try some more pulls next weekend.

Cyclotrons are below: the one on the right was the first pull and I put a lot of effort trying to get it out but it was still damaged. The one of the left was even a better pull and we used some powder to help release but it didn't help at all and we just ripped it apart to get it off.


As you can see the detail is pretty good though I do need to work on my plastic cutting skills.


Details on the upper pack parts look pretty good. Webbing is present in the usual places. I forgot the spacers on the upper one (pennies) so the lower one has sharper details.


Some of the side walls are pretty thin and for the upper piece I will probably try to do 24"x24" pulls instead of my current 16"x24" this will use more plastic but hopefully trade for better end results.


Bonus pics of my four legged helpers (note: they only help to lower my blood pressure when stuff goes terribly wrong)


They refused to all pose for a picture together

[twmedford23]

Wow. The detail on those pulls is pretty phenomenal.

[slicerd1]

Wow. The detail on those pulls is pretty phenomenal.

Thanks! I am pretty pleased with the results especially because I am just using my shop vac. That's kind of the worst part because it looks so good but then I destroy it while trying to remove the mold

I actually need to order the mold release but it looks like I am going to spend $65 on a case the only other site I found that sells by the can comes out to be $24 for a single can shipped and for that price I might as well get the case (12 cans). Anybody need a can of mold release in AZ?

Edit: Mold Release has been ordered and should be here by Friday. Fingers crossed that it will do the trick.

2nd Edit: Well my weekend was messed up by events out of my control and I am out of town this weekend. So even thou I have everything for a second go I wont get it work on it for another whole 2 weeks. Very sad

[spookmasterflex]

These molds look really killer!

I vac formed mine and had the same problem areas but also had some problems getting the pulls flush on the edges. I haven't updated my thread in ages though. It's been a really long project. The styrene I used from from New Hampshire Plastics and actually has rubber mixed in so it is super flexible and resists the tearing your getting releasing the molds. That may be something to look into!

It's obvious you have put a lot of money and time into the rig and molds.

With molds this slick do you think it might be work it to pull fiberglass shells? It'd certainly be a lot of money and work, but you could recoup some cost in the long run by selling shells either here if you meet requirements or through other venues.

[nick-a-tron]

Keep trying! I know you can do it and those pulls looks too promising to give up!

[slicerd1]

This post may contain an affiliate link that helps support GBFans.com when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Thanks for the the kind words Nick & Spooky. While my spirits were down for a while I am still pushing forward and hoping for the best.

Spooky. I did look into the fiberglass shells for a minute and there is a significant cost and skill involved and for now I am still hopeful that the vacform molds will work out. Even with that being said I will still likely need to paint on some fiberglass product to reinforce my final molds anyway. I am hoping to keep it pretty simple and use something like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CINDQ8/ref ... OF6VT0QE0M

Also I checked out your molds Spooky and while maybe not as detailed as mine you got a pretty nice pull there. If you ever wanted to try it again and get more flush edges I would add a spacer to lift up the whole model this seems to be the only way to fully remove the curved edges (i lifted mine up .5 inch). I also added another spacer under that (something thin like a penny or a washer) this lets the air get sucked out underneath the model and helps minimizes the curve.

Of course when you lift up the model you then have the problem of perfectly cutting out your mold .5 inch above the table and I found the video below that will be my method for trying to get really nice clean edges (fingers crossed).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyMm1KOBDo

With any luck at all I will get to work on the pack this weekend and I need to do some sanding/gluing and then use my mold release and (fingers crossed) I will hopefully be able to get a decent pull. My friend that has been helping will be out of town thou so I will need to grow an extra set of hands.

[slicerd1]

So I finally had another free weekend. I repaired/upgraded my models by separating them into more pieces and then spraying liberally with the mold release I purchased. This appears to of done the trick because I have fairly successful molds and they are in once piece!. I only did the lower cyclotron piece, I will need to make a bigger 24"x24" vac form setup for the upper section. I also got a very very early set of pack lights operating. I am using Scohens lights and sound setup that he has very graciously shared.

The two pulls I did today. I am still getting used to how long to heat the plastic so the one of left has softer detail and I heated the one of the right more. My friend has a heat thermometer gun and he is out of town so I will have to buy one or temporarily borrow his. This way I can get more consistent results in the future.


Still pretty happy with the details. I feel like if I get the plastic a bit hotter it will be better.


More detail realized my kitchen has terrible lighting for photos.


You cant really see it here but there is some weird ghosting that happens with the circle/windows for the cyclotron. I am assuming this happens when the plastic touches the wood cools slightly then the vacuum pulls the newly cool plastic to the side creating a slight ghosting. I am hoping sanding or future more heated plastic will fix this.


More details. You can see some of the lines here from where the 1/2" spacer meets the model. Next week I will be working on figuring out how to trim the extra plastic. I am planning on using my dremmel (see video in earlier post) and then sand paper to get the best finish. The only corner damaged during mold removal is the left most corner in the picture facing the camera. I am not to worried about this because it will be covered when joining the top and bottom pieces.


Lights! This is a bit of a mess but its working. I am getting another bread board to finish up the test wiring and then will either build the final results on prototype pcbs or depending on the cost get Scohens custom printed pcbs he posted to his thread.


Finally my dogs disapproving look after working on the pack all afternoon.


Next week I will be working on repairing/prepping the upper section as well a modifying the bumper model. If time permits I will also try to build a setup to remove the extra plastic from the final molds. I am pretty happy this I got some more movement and it feels like the project is moving again.

[KCGhostbuster]

Coming along very nicely -your pulls look like they've got great detail.

[slicerd1]

It was a busy weekend and I started some non ghostbuster related projects, refinishing a bench and making some shelves. So no new pics but I did work on the packs upper section and the Bumper.

For the upper section I mainly worked on some repairs, drilled extra holes to reduce webbing, and sanding parts so that will hopefully be less likely to stick in the final molds.

For the bumper I realized my setup wouldn't work for cutting the sides out, so I am trying a different approach. I was so concerned with making the molds I didn't realize how much thought was needed for the removal of the extra plastic. No matter how great the molds look it wont matter if I do a hack job with the cutting.

Next week I hope to finish up both the upper section and bumper and maybe even do a pull on the bumper. I still need to work on another/new/different heating box for 24x24" plastic to do the upper section. I guess I will have to think about that over the week, the first heating box takes up a bunch of space and weighs a ton so maybe this time a light frame that is covered in aluminum foil will work that way I can save all the extra wood weight.

[CPU64]

Are you heating up the buck as well before setting the sheet and pulling the air out?

[slicerd1]

Are you heating up the buck as well before setting the sheet and pulling the air out?

No I like the idea but I would need an extra set of hands and then I also have to worry about tripping a breaker. It is 100+ degrees in AZ so I guess it's a little warm by default. Is that something you have tried before and gotten good results with?

[Dan AKA]

I have an old school vac she'll sitting in my closet and this thread makes me excited to possibly make something of it. Great work so far, keep it up!

[thebigone2087]

This is awesome! I'm sad I missed this one until now. It's nice to see a vac shell that's more accurate and of regular size than the studio creations.

[slicerd1]

Thanks for all the kind words guys I'm glad I can inspire others here because there are lots of threads that have inspired me. I still have a long way to go with this and look forward to sharing all the ups and downs with you guys.

[CPU64]

I've always wondered when someone will try vac forming with a negative mold..