Vacuum Forming

[scratchy]

I need to vacuum form two large styrene half dishes (SS Millennium Falcon hull) and my oven is too small to heat the styrene. Does anyone have any suggestions as to go about this.

I don't know anyone that owns a pizza oven, so I'm out of luck there.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Mr. Badwrench]

You could possibly heat them over the stove. Keep the plastic moving over the heating element. Or, since this is a fairly shallow curve, you might be able to get away with just using a heat gun. Third option, each hull half is broken into quarters, fore and aft by the box that goes between the mandibles, and side to side by the tunnels leading to the escape pods. As such, you really only need to vacuform eight quarter sections. Might that fit in your oven?

[scratchy]

I'll be getting a plug turned on a lathe for the whole section shortly, I really didn't want to go with half or quarter sections.

I thought of the heat gun route, and it's doable. However, I also had a crazy idea of getting some BBQ brickettes, laying them out, and having the plastic elevated over top.

I think the heat gun route would probally be best. Clamping the plastic to a frame and onto the form with the vacuum on and using the heat gun until I have the shape.

Thanks for the reply Mr. Badwrench, I appreciate it!

[skymods]

What is the diameter of the dish? This site uses a tabletop electric grill as the heating element. Maybe you could rig up something similar with a couple of units. You might get more even heat that way. http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformplans.html

Dave

[scratchy]

Dave,

The half dish is about two feet wide, I gave a little extra for any shrinkage that may occur. I googled a link on making a vacuum form table and it seems easy how it was shown in the YouTube clips, it's not as involved as the link you posted, but I think it would get the job done.

I'll be starting to make the form, and I'll need to find some aliminum frame.