Vacuum Former from scratch

pinshape

I'm really excited about working on a vacuum forming system from scratch with my 12-year-old son. We're going to document our progress and post final plans, files, and a list of do's and don'ts once we start making some awesome armor and injection molds for weapons. We've come up with a few designs so far. One of them puts the vacuum inside the vacuum cavity, which initially involved using the original Switch Housing. We expected the wires to pass through its body, but then decided to keep the vac outside the former to make it easier to upgrade as we go, and created the Ext Switch Housing 2 file. We also designed some pretty simple feet, but since our former is going to be four feet long, we're thinking about adding a secondary middle foot design to ensure it stays level. The main cavity of the former still has wet glue in it, and the first set of feet are printing as I'm typing this. I'll have more pics and hopefully some cool armor or other projects soon. I'd love to hear from anyone who's done something similar before so we can learn from their past experiences and get it right the first time.