I am seeking to make some shapes that are quite large(30” x 40”) but not so deep. The large production manufacturing places are charging a fortune for limited production of say 12-24 pieces. Any suggestions?

@@TheHighlanderprime Well, you can scale up what I have created here. To create a platen that's 30x40 isnt really a big deal, but one that can support a 30x40 buck would be another situation depending on your actual depth. 2" is no problem, but getting up past 6" requires a dimensionally larger platen (as well as much more significant vacuum volume, since you have more air trapped below the plastic sheet that needs to be equalized below positive atmosphere levels). Use the formula I gave you in the video as a starting point. Remember, your platen doesn't have to be square. You can make a rectangular shape using the formula for each dimension. Remember that formula is for the formable area, meaning you'll also have to account for any dead space you want on the plastic as a buffer zone (highly suggested) as well as any room to land your frames if using the gasket style I presented with. You'll also need a heater system to suit that size as well. The 24x24 former shown here is probably around $500, so keep in mind you may be around $1000 - 1500 with your larger former (vacuum pumps and heaters being the most expensive parts, as well as any metal adaptors/ball valves/and hoses). Now, this will give you the ability to make many parts, but if you don't see future projects in vacuum forming (depending on the quote presented to you) it may be cheaper to outsource it if all you need it for is this one project. You may also consider looking into the vertical style of vacuum formers. The frames and plastic sheet are on a vertical rail. Brought up to the heater (above), and then they slide down to the platen and buck (below) so you don't have to carry and line up the frames by hand. For cost and simplicity sake, I would still suggest the by-hand method provided you had someone that could help since it would save considerable time and effort by comparison. Also, keep in mind most full sheets of plastic are sold as 48x96 or 48x99. Depending on supplier, that would be your max frame size. Obviously a 48x48 would be ideal from a material preparation (cutting) and utilization (no offcuts) standpoint, provided the 40" dimension of your buck can fit.

Hi, thankyou so much for this video and all your detailed answers. Do you know if there is a plastic I could use to make a motorbike headlight lens that would be strong and also very clear and uv resistant? I'm thinking a thickness of at least 0.200". The lens is only 7x5 and about 2" deep so if I can I'd like to use 0.300" material, the most important thing is strength and clarity as I want to put an led projector lens in it, and hopefully an led drl if I can make it fit.

@@bigdaddy741098 Real headlights lenses are made from polycarbonate, which can be vacuum formed. I haven't done it myself since I haven't had a need beyond PETG, but looking at the specifications you just need to make sure you have a good heating element to bring it up to temperature (I'd suggest something capable of 200C/400F). You'll need to apply a UV coating afterwards (the kind usually supplied in headlight restoration kits), but I would chat with your local plastic supply about your application. Polycarb is pretty strong, so I would start with 0.125" or something in that range - which will also be considerably easier to heat and form.

@@mwjscn thank you so much for your reply and advice, and I will definitely try 0.125" first. It will probably be a few months before I can get it all up and running, but I will come back and let you know how it went so anyone else can maybe benefit from my experience. Maybe I'll also make a poor excuse for a video about it 😁

Thanks for the kind comment!

excuse me sir, My project is design Polycarbonate forming machine (thickness~ 5mm), Could you tell me how much does the temperature increase every second to heating sheet?

@@anhnguyenlehoang5945 I have used blow molding in the past for polycarbonate material and to give a temp is impossible because it has a wide range of melting depending on the material and not knowing the draw of the mold and if it's a female mold or a male mode with the plug assist.

@@airwolf269 thank you.

@@airwolf269 excuse me sir, Can you tell me How much plate clamping force is enough ? I use vacuum pump with 27inchesHg

A clamp frame is only to hold the material while heating and to help with webbing while forming. Now if you have a inline thermoforming machie the chain will pull the materiel through the heaters on a cycle timer or called dwell time. The rails are water cooled to keep the materail in the chain while heating until it gets to the forming station then the clamp from is part of the water jacket the mold is mounted to. We ran the clamp at 25 psi and can adjust it as needed for webs and or draw. Vacuum pump was always at 30hg with 15gal reserve tank on the pump. Once the station close pressure form is then applied at no greater then 50psi so not to blow the box as many new mechanics do. Air eject again applied as needed normal 10psi will be applied through the vacuum port with 2 way valve for vacuum and air eject to remove the materiel from the mold. Sheet machine is also almost the same just no chain but on a rotary machine.

Thanks! I know exactly what you're saying, since it's what led me to create the video in the first place. I spent months just reading and gathering information from forums and other youtube videos, so I figured I'd try and save others the trouble.

@@mwjscn you did a great job. 👍🏻

Glad to help! I can't claim it was my idea, but you can regard this video as a 'Vacuum Forming's Best Hits' album containing all the good ideas I gathered from across the web. Having some spacing underneath is definitely important, since it allows the trapped air to evacuate underneath the master which results in a tighter draw around the buck.

@@mwjscn That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw you do that. I have a question. I'm sculpting something that's about 4" wide and 2¼" tall and somewhat dome-shaped but not exactly, which I plan on casting in Ultracal 30 as the buck, and I have some .03 inch clear polycarbonate I was thinking about using, although I might get some .02 inch if that doesn't work as I'm hoping. Do you have any tips for that specific combination? Also, it looks like the holes in your vacuum box were spaced 1" apart, but what size do the holes themselves need to be for a project that size?

@@LesignerGirl If your end goal is to have the polycarbonate be perfectly see-through afterwards, I suggest some type of clear over your buck material. If the material is rough, it will transfer over to the polycarbonate and form a haze. If any material is loose, it may become embedded in the heated plastic. The holes I drilled are 1/8". You can use that size at any scale. I suggest 1" spacing at a maximum, which is what I used, but for smaller platens you can pack them tighter if you desire.

@@mwjscn My idea is to make a clear respirator that either has valves, or some type of cloth covering over the chin, that I can wear to prevent the spread of Covid-19 if I come across someone at work who needs to be able to read lips. It doesn't need to be absolutely perfect, but I would like to get it as perfect as possible. I think I can get a smooth finish by using my miniature silicone rolling pin on the clay, and the alginate I'll be using to cast that will keep whatever finish the clay has. Likewise, the Ultracal 30 should keep whatever finish the alginate has. I was thinking about buying a pack of clear plastic Solo plates to practice with before using the more expensive polycarbonate. If it comes out clear with the plates, will this guarantee that it will also be clear with the polycarbonate?

@@LesignerGirl Polycarbonate at .030 is going to be inexpensive, no purpose in testing with the material in a different format just to change for the real pulls. PETG would be even less expensive and much easier to heat to temperature (a 4'x8' of .030 PETG cost me $30 from my supplier) if you wanted to switch to that material. Considering the object is so small, you'll get many tries out of a single sheet of either. You'll likely run into problems with your breath fogging either material in your intended application, though.

Glad to hear the video is helping! Since you're working at a modest size scale, you can find sheets on Amazon or other similar retailers. However, I'd always suggest trying to find a plastic supply depot near you. It can take some googling, but they're really the best option. They sell full sheets and usually cut them to your size requirements. I usually spend about 30 - 40 bucks on a 48" x 100" sheet, which for your size would be in excess of 30 pulls, at about a dollar-per.

If my conversion is right, the vacuum in the container is about 6 kpa compared to atmosphere around 101 kpa. 28 inHg to Pascals comes up with a value of around 95 kpa.

Thanks! I highly suggest getting the acrylic manufacturer's data sheet for the product you're purchasing. Every thermoplastic data sheet I've gotten from my plastic supplier states the glass transition temperature (which you want to exceed with your heating element) and usually has extra tips if not an entire section on thermoforming/vacuum forming.

@@mwjscn thank you for the info, I shall check that out.

When your apartment is your workshop, you gotta do what you gotta do...

@@mwjscn its really great work ur putting in and i appreciate ur info. thanks again

Interesting tip, I'll have to give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

The heating element is shown @2:39. The parts list is in the description, but it's just two 1500 watt quartz heaters in a 2'x2' MDF box with some tin foil and HVAC tape.

Hi Carmine - Polycarbonate/Lexan and PETG are different materials and require a different amount of heat to properly vacuum form (you can find the manufacturer technical sheet that usually has a ton of great information on thermoforming, including what temperatures are needed). Those proportions aren't an issue as long as the platen and vacuum are designed well. If you plan on doing it with a cheap vacuum, you'll run into problems. Protective film must be removed from both sides of any clear plastic before vacuum forming. The protective film is also plastic, and will melt onto your sheet when you heat it. Now that we got through those questions, just a couple things I noticed: .040" polycarbonate is fairly thin. If you plan on doing a deeper draw (which is exactly what 6-9" is), you'll likely need a thicker starting material. As I stated in the video, when you heat and draw plastic over a form, it has the tendency to thin out (because you're stretching it, basically). I did one form at the very beginning of the video that was about 14" long, 6" wide, and 7" tall (which is fairly close to your dimensions) with .080" Polystyrene and the resulting wall thickness of the finished plastic was .030-.035" (about half of what I started with). So keep in mind where you want your wall thickness on your finished form to be, and backtrack from there. The plastic will always thin out in relation to your buck height (since it has to be heated more/droop more). I did some forms in the same .080" Polystyrene that were only about 1.5" tall and they came out at ~.072" which almost has no loss of thickness. I think at the end of this video with the soda cup I started with .060" PETG and it ended up being something like .050" for that 2.5" draw. If you want the body to end up being .040", I'd start with at least .060" material and give that a shot. I'd suggest starting with some sheets of PETG. It's often cheaper, widely available, and requires lower heating temperatures/faster to bring to temperature. That way you can get the motions down before moving onto the more expensive and difficult-to-form polycarbonate. For small vacuum form operations, hobby shops are great sources for plastic, however if you plan on doing something this large and possibly doing a medium-large run of them, I'd suggest searching for and becoming friends with a local plastic supplier. They often have tons of material types all with varying thicknesses, all the technical specifications, and can cut the material to size for the particular former/frames you plan on using. I get 48 x 100" PETG sheets of varying thicknesses rendered down to about 22 x 22" for my frames and I get 8 pieces (usually they cut for free or very cheap) for about 30 bucks. Also, I know you can technically vacuum form plaster, but I always suggest people try to make their bucks from wood or some strong material. It has better machining properties for a more accurate buck and wood can withstand the heat really well while also being stable so you can draw many forms from the same buck (tool life). Remember, don't use any materials that can't withstand 300 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 1 minute without deforming/melting/breaking. If you need any more help, feel free to drop another comment. Happy forming!

THANK YOU!! What a wealth of information! Thanks for sharing your experience with me. So I'll get a couple of sheets of PETG or even Styrene for practice. I'm not the best at carving Wood... But I get what you mean. Maybe I can try Clay. I can get that Fired at a Kiln at the local School. I'm trying to save myself headache, the Body Buck will be a fairly basic form... Details like Door Handles, Windshield Wipers, Emblems, Gas Cap, etc... will be add-on items. It'll look better anyway. My proposed Vacuum source is a 7 Gallon, 1.5hp professional Shop Vac. Adequate?? Thanks again!

@@CarminesRCTipsandTricks Unfortunately for a lot of the home shop hobbyists, the conventional Shop Vacs are actually not the greatest at pulling a vacuum for a former. It may work at a smaller size, but at the dimensions you're working with you may need a Dyson Ball Stand-up vacuum or a set-up like mine. It's really odd, but the common household standing or canister vacuum is better for this application than a Shop Vac. I think it has something to do with the large reservoir of air inside (dust/debris collection bin). I've heard varying comments about filling that space with objects to reduce the interior volume of air possibly working, but I can't comment because I haven't tried it. With vacuum forming, it's not necessarily important *how much* air you move when compared to *how fast* you move it. The snappier the system, the more accurate and tighter forms you will get. If you want to start by giving the shop vac a try while putting insulation foam or something to reduce the air volume inside the dust collection bin, it's largely free to try. However, if you're getting less-than-satisfactory pulls you'll know that's probably an item on the chopping block. If you try it, let me know how it goes so we can properly advise people in the future. On the cheap, you may be able to get a couple small canister-sized vacuums from the local Goodwill or similar and make multiple vacuum holes on the bottom of your platen (or borrow them from the house or friends - if they're good friends lol). The parts list for my entire build is also linked in the description, so if you end up wanting to replicate what I have you can price it out.

This video gets a lot of hits from different places in the world, so I'm not going to make any specific commentary on plastic sources, but there are plenty of comments where I go over this below. I'd suggest finding a local plastics retailer or a hobby shop. Depends on the scale you're looking to make. Hobby shops and online will have dimensionally smaller thinner stock available whereas plastic supply warehouses will have a variety of thicknesses and can usually cut to custom dimensions from any given sheet. They will also have a higher quality and known brand names compared to generic online retailers.

10-4, I got you on you can't tell me where you can go in my area to purchase plastic. You seem quite accomplished at plastic forming, if nothing else is available in my area would home depot clear sheet do (following the spec sheet mention in one of your replies). Air freight (which everything shipped to Hawaii comes by) is super costly. I'd like to get started but living on one of the outer islands hampers me a bit. Thanks for the quick reply. Hope your site does well!!

@@spikealbrecht7934 I'm trying to remember, but Home Depot sometimes has its PETG and Acrylic cross/mis-labelled. Besides that one caveat of making sure the exact material you're buying, yes you can use plastic stock from Home Depot. They may be limited on thicknesses available, but it's worth a try. PETG has a significantly lower forming temperature required than polycarbonate or acrylic. I mostly focus on PETG, Polystyrene, and ABS in the video since they're more common and friendly to get started with. Also, remember that Home Depot expanded Polystyrene foam (insulation) is not the same material as Polystyrene sheet. I don't know much about the Hawaiian islands, but you may want to check Google for any possible plastic supply locations or hobby shops though just in case. Some wood warehouses may cross-stock plastic material too, so check their product inventories online or give them a call.

Thanks again, here in kona on the big island, pandemic and all, things are scarce... last barge that came from Honolulu lost 10+ containers from rough seas (Costco hasn't had frozen chicken in 2 months 🤔). Look forward to forming, will keep in touch, you're a great source for info, aloha

I use Piedmont Plastics, they have quite a few locations in the US.

Some of the points were covered in the video, but since it's long I can understand if you didn't watch the whole thing. The platen is sealed on the edges, but I did later add some aluminum HVAC tape on top to further assist in making it air-tight. The multi hole array has superior performance for me since it brings the plastic down around the edges for better definition. My original version had a larger singular center hole and I go over that option in the video if the user ends up wanting to go that route. Nickels were used as spacers in the video to space the buck off the platen. Thanks!

Only thing that really matters for vacuum forming is exceeding the glass transition temperature, so look at the spec sheet for whatever material type and brand you end up using. I don't believe the different PET types have much variance in their heating requirements so they should all be fairly easy to use.

Thanks for the kind words! Vacuum forming is used in the RC hobby space a lot, from bodies of RC cars, to canopies for planes, and hulls for boats (my father has some 1 meter class sailboats, which is mostly made of all vacuum formed plastic). 5mm is thicker than anything I've personally attempted, but definitely do-able with a robust enough heating system, but it really comes down to how large the hull is. The smaller it is, the more viable a DIY solution becomes (just in terms of maneuvering the frames and scaling the overall cost of the vacuum system/platen). If you have the time, it may be worth making your mold and using some thinner plastic like 2mm to do a couple test runs and get used to the heating system, the look of the correct droop in the plastic, and just getting comfortable with the general practice (as well as testing for any system issues) prior to spending more for the thicker material (or using up your thicker material during troubleshooting/testing). Remember that if the hull you have now is 5mm, that probably means they started out with a 6mm sheet (1/4") due to thinout during the heating/droop process. Since the hull is an easy shape, though, that means it should need to be heated less and the vacuum should be quite easy to pull (so if it's just a hair under 5mm now, you can probably use that same size sheet and get something representative of the original). Feel free to throw me any more questions if they come up now or down the line, I'm happy to help.

Polycarbonate seems to be more-or-less the same process, but I haven't personally used the material. You can usually find the technical sheet from any large supplier of the material which usually has vacuum forming details on it. Here is an example (Vacuum Forming information on Pages 7-11): www.tapplastics.com/uploads/pdf/Polycarbonate%20Fabrication%20Guide.pdf If you buy from a plastics supplier, just ask what brands of polycarbonate they carry. They also usually have the technical documents on hand for their contractors, so don't be afraid to ask.

PET turns white or crystalizes when it's overheated. It sounds like you may be applying heat at too high a temperature. Try lowering the temperature and heating for a longer duration. In the video, I used 1.5mm PETG and with quartz heaters I have (1,500 watts individually, 3,000 combined), it took around 3 minutes at around 300F/150C with my enclosure to get to the correct droop.

You definitely wouldn't want anything weaker than what's in the video, but the vacuum pump strength basically determines how long you'll wait for the tanks to empty of air.

You can, but it's probably a better long-term solution to get a replacement lens for the headlight assembly. If you do vacuum form one, you probably want to use polycarbonate which raises the difficulty level a bit since it requires much higher forming temperatures.

I'm afraid I make all my own components for my projects, so I'm not aware of any DIYer network that may exist. There are companies out there that do take vacuum forming orders, though. Depending on your budget that may be a possibility.