Vacu-Form?

**cmdr199212** · #1 12-31-2009, 07:57 AM

Hi there, is there anyone who could make me a few decent quality F6F Hellcat canopies? I need one in 1/32 for the ModelArt F6F-5N, and then a 1/33 for the Halinski F6F-3. Anyone? I'd buy them, but the only one I could find was 1/33, and they wanted like $2.50 for it, not including shipping.

Any help would be really appreciated!

**clif52** · #2 12-31-2009, 10:14 AM

Have you thought about making your own vacuum former? Make a sealed box from wood or some other material, seal the edges. Use a drill press or a dremel drill press and drill small holes in the top in a grid pattern. The smaller the object you want to form space the grid closer together. Drill a larger hole on the left and right on the side of the box to insert your vacuum cleaner nozzel. The other side you will place a baffle plate. Its just a flat circular plate made from metal or plastic that has a small strip coming off the circle with a nail or screw in it. You place it over the baffle hole and tack, nail, or screw the strip to the box side. You make a metal or wood frame to hold your plastic sheet and use spring clamps to hold the plastic inside the frame. Now you heat you plastic by placing it inside the oven to heat it until it begins to sag. Turn on your vacuum conected to the vacuum former box and using heat protective gloves place the heated plastic sheet over your blank mold for your canopy. Quickly flip the baffle plate over the open hole on your vacuum former and it will put the plastic down over your blank mold. Thats basicly how the vacuum former works. You can find detailed info on the web telling you how to build your own former. If you are just making canopies it would be a very small former 6 to 12 inches square and a box deep enought to plug in a vacuum hose. I've seen people use a regular home vacuum cleaner or shop vacuums. I have heard of people using heat guns to heat the plastic instead of a kitchen oven. I guess you could make a frame for the plastic thats hinged on one edge. Flip the frame from over your vacuum former to under heat lamps and turn the lamps on to heat the plastic. Then flip the frame over to the former when the plastic get hot enough. Depending on how much money you want to spend you could build your own vacuum forming manufacturing center for $50.00 or less depending on how large and complex you want to make it. Check Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY and you will probably find several plans and instructions. There may also be something on Utube.com but I haven't checked.

Clif

**CMDRTED** · #3 12-31-2009, 11:09 AM

A quick mini tute...
A vacuum former is easy, make a box drill a hole in the side the size of the acc attachment for most house hold vacuum cleaners, drill many rows of 1/8 inch holes on the top, this will be your working surface. The heat source can be anything that doesn't flame the plastic. I use the top burner of an electric stove and 2 pieces of 2x3. The trickest part is the plastic holder. I used 2 clipboards, popriveted the two clamping sections opposing each other and made a small frame out of the scraps. The mold is made from the canopy original made inside out with sculpey putty as the medium. Sand it after baking real well as this will show any scratches or imperfections. When you cast your master you have to raise it alittle above the box working surface to account for the drawing of palstic at teh base...

**Bomarc** · #4 12-31-2009, 11:15 AM

Excellent! Just the ticket for the home DIY'er.

Love the two clipboard holder!

Mike

**Bomarc** · #5 12-31-2009, 11:38 AM

It took me awhile to find this link again, but for a really low-tech alternative to a vacu-forming machine for molding canopies, this gentleman use a caulking gun with a heat gun:

Mike's flying scale model pages (not me, another Mike)

Great idea and tutorial.....

Mike

**Willja67** · #6 12-31-2009, 01:30 PM

Here is another way to do it, which also happens to be the way I made mine. I was very resistant to the idea of making a vaccuform system for some reason that I can't logically explain. Once I finally took the plunge and did it I couldn't beleive how easy it was or why I didn't do it sooner. I like this design because it is easy to modify for the size of the of the material you want to use.

**SCEtoAUX** · #7 12-31-2009, 01:45 PM

Somewhere in the dim darkness of my mind I recall someone showing a way to make aircraft canopies by softening some clear plastic using a gas stove burner and using a form made from the paper part using that sculpey putty (or something similar) like CMDRTED mentioned. Maybe it was on the Zealot forum? Or maybe my mind is more dim and dark than usual.

**CMDRTED** · #8 12-31-2009, 02:26 PM

doug it was on the zealot forum. every year or so I redo the thread about vac'ing canopies. Todays was the really short version, I usually redo it when I do an aircraft that req the bubble canopy.

**lancer525** · #9 12-31-2009, 02:29 PM

I've always wanted to build one of these, and I have several links at home on my computer (I'm at work, shhhhh, don't tell anyone!) that show formers from 3" square all the way up to 4 feet...

The problem is, not one of them specifies what kind of plastic, OR where to buy it!! It would be a pretty useless gimcrack to have if one can't find a source for plastic to form in it. They don't have anything suitable at Wal-Mart that I know of, and I live in such a rural area that the nearest town of any size is over an hour away.

So where would one find sources on the internet for suitable plastics to put in the thing?

**Bomarc** · #10 12-31-2009, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancer525

So where would one find sources on the internet for suitable plastics to put in the thing?

I designed my rig to handle up to the 11"x14" sheets that Micro-Mark carries. That was back in 1996, and they still carry those sizes today:

Plastic

In fact, their line up of styrene and Vivak (my favorite for clear parts like canopies) has expanded since that time.

Mike