Vacuum forming with PETG plastic

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:42 pm

Has anyone here had experience vacuum forming with PETG? I think using .080 thickness will give me a strong enough case. The cool thing about it is that it's clear, so I could paint it from the inside to give a badass clear coat sheen to it all (kind of like an iPod). I just ordered 4 12"x12" sheets along with 8 12"x12" sheets of some good old .080 HIS (high impact styrene), so we'll see how this goes. I ordered from www.indplastic.com - they have great prices and sell stuff already cut to 12"x12" (or larger), so that makes everything real easy if you set your vacuum box to that size.

Also, something that I'm smacking my forehead about because I hadn't thought of it before: looking up vacuum forming on YouTube!

Here are some great videos I found:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KUl4WjD23Bk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hGBRiYhxRTM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BVVE5EHzRnk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_FZcGzYn0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wE03-rGeZ_U&feature=user

There are others but these should be helpful.

I'm hoping this clear case idea will work! Naturally I'll post pictures when I try it.

Sharp Sapphire · Post by **Sharp Sapphire** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:57 pm

Just wondering... how thick is .080? That to me looks really thin.

Would it suffice for a decent strength case that I couldn't just break with my hands?

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:58 am

Yes, it's thick enough. I've tried .060, and while it's easier to vacuum form because it's thinner, it's not quite strong enough for this use.

I finally bought myself a heat gun for $25 at Lowe's last weekend and I'm wondering why I never used one before now. Anything that doesn't get heated up well enough I just take care of with the heat gun and massage the plastic into place with my gloved hand. Easy! The box says the gun has two settings of 750 and 1000 degrees Fahrenheit! Cool

(er... hot) I spent some time Saturday afternoon melting scraps of plastic in my garage - it was fun and educational.

I'm thinking it might be handy to get a flat, wide nozzle for it to remove cartridge slots in one go. I remember Triton mentioning a method where he would wrap the rest of the board in a damp towel (to protect it) and using a blow dryer or something to get the same effect.

adrian_1212@ · Post by **adrian_1212@** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:52 pm

if u do that u wanna make a mold of a super nintendo portable case i got like 20-30 bucks