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Head start please: Vac form oven temps


greggles.w

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Hi all,

 

I'll soon be jumping into my first attempt at vac forming on my home-built former, & I'm seeking a bit of advice to trim down the rounds of trial & error!

 

I will be using plain white sheet styrene, 0.5mm th, to be pre-heated in the kitchen oven.  At least that's my plan as it stands.  Sometime ago I found a very informative article which suggested  temperature ranges for the oven .. & do you think I can find it again??!

 

Seeking recommended temperature, or range, near enough to get me started.

 

thanks in advance

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  • 2 weeks later...
6 hours ago, Reconcilor said:

Wow. That thread sank like a stone! A shame really as it's a good question

 

Yes, it did fall flat!

 

It may be that I asked the wrong question.. since then I've belatedly discovered that while the plastic can be prepared in the oven, it actually ought to be heated by the top grill element, not a conventional oven element from below.  Something to do with less control due to heat build up under the sheet.  The same hindsight advice said that with this heat build up the sheet quickly goes past 'elastic' (good) to just 'melted' (not good).  That would explain some of the variability I had in my results ..

 

7 hours ago, Reconcilor said:

Am going to have my first run with vac-forming in a few weeks.

 

Good luck! It's good fun, just be sure to have a lot of sheet at hand for trial & error.

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I'm just doing the canopy for a Mig15 I'm building. A mate of mine 'van roon' has a small commercially purchased vacform rig so hopefully he has a few clues and we won't waste too much plastic. 😀

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For some reason I missed this 1st time around but pleased I've seen it now. I did wonder on first reading about the oven or grill, I've always imagined the grill as being the way to go. What temp on the grill did you use & how close or far from the grill? To my mind these are the sort of variables your inital query was designed to confirm.

Steve.

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I've done a lot of vacforming on large commercial machines and on home made equipment. You definitely need the heat from above so the grill is better than the oven. Ours is gas so I don't have a clue about temperature but practice soon tells you when the plastic is hot enough.

 

You might find it useful to have a look my Prentice build from last year as I had to vacform a new canopy. Just shout if you need more info.

 

Steve

 

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22 hours ago, BritJet said:

I've done a lot of vacforming on large commercial machines and on home made equipment. You definitely need the heat from above so the grill is better than the oven. Ours is gas so I don't have a clue about temperature but practice soon tells you when the plastic is hot enough.

 

You might find it useful to have a look my Prentice build from last year as I had to vacform a new canopy. Just shout if you need more info.

 

Steve

 

Some great tips on that page Steve, female moulds too, just like Rareplanes & later Contrail. Brilliant, thanks for putting that up.

Steve.

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On 08/02/2017 at 8:59 AM, Reconcilor said:

I'm just doing the canopy for a Mig15 I'm building.

 

Found that WIP thread - great work, recommended to all!

 

On 08/02/2017 at 9:34 AM, BritJet said:

You might find it useful to have a look my Prentice build from last year as I had to vacform a new canopy.

 

Yet another great thread, most instructive thanks.  I'm learning quite a bit ... after my first attempt ... I'm amazed I got any outcome now I realise how back-to-front I was with my (half) 'baked' technique!!

 

19 hours ago, Reconcilor said:

Hey Greggles, check this out we kick started this thread back to life!😀 How good is that!?

 

Yes, well done, thanks for bumping it back to life.

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15 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Some great tips on that page Steve, female moulds too, just like Rareplanes & later Contrail. Brilliant, thanks for putting that up.

Steve.

 

2 hours ago, greggles.w said:

 

Found that WIP thread - great work, recommended to all!

 

 

Yet another great thread, most instructive thanks.  I'm learning quite a bit ... after my first attempt ... I'm amazed I got any outcome now I realise how back-to-front I was with my (half) 'baked' technique!!

 

 

Yes, well done, thanks for bumping it back to life.

 

Glad to be able to help.

 

Once you see the difference between using male and female moulds you won't use anything else. More work to make but so much better mouldings.

 

Steve

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