New Vacuum Form Design?!

Yes it is nice to be able to put your projects INSIDE something isn't it? You know, to hold everything together so it doesn't flop around? Discuss the techniques here!

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gannon
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New Vacuum Form Design?!

Post by gannon »

yeah... I have a habbit of loving to design things but not build them it seems. /me wonders if it happens to be ADD or something, but I already know I can add...:P

Anyways, I was actually able to use what I learned back in Trig. a little bit while desiging my new form. Right now I just have a rough sketch and concept, but later I'll be making it more detailed.
So far I have the plastic get lowerd onto the form with a single lever that uses a single pully to pull it down (that's the part that used trig :P), but I realized that if I did that I'd need a 7.5" arm on the end of the lever to pull it far enough (12") in an ~ right angle. Odds are I'll change that to use 2 pullies (to change the ratio) with a shorter (hopefully 2-3") arm.
Anyways, I have to go open my gifts soon (had to wait for my step-dad and his kids to get home :()
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gannon
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Post by gannon »

Ok, got all the pulley sizes worked out (yay! More trig!)
Anyways, I'll need 2 pullies fastened together sized 0.11" and 0.75". Right now the design is a 18" cube with a forming area of 16"x16" and can accept a mold up to 4" high.
Gotta work on the electronics now :P
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gannon
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Post by gannon »

Err.. I kinda forgot that I even started a new design and ended up on a zelda binge (playing 14-18 hours a day) for the past few days :P
Anyways, I'm pretty sure I have the electronics all designed, basically just the heating element(s), switch, transformer, mercury switch, and relay(s). I might add in a temp. gauge too, but it really isn't too important :P
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Life of Brian
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Post by Life of Brian »

You're cracking me up, man. Neat design, though.
dragonhead wrote:sweet. ive spent a third of my life on benheck!
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gannon
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Post by gannon »

Getting back into this project finally :P
Anyways, I'm starting to think that a lever/pulley system to pull down the plastic isn't the best, mainly because the pulley sizes are a bit specific. My next idea would be a screw/motor setup so I could make it work with just a pushbutton.
Mainly, the idea would be to have 4 long bolts with light springs around each of them, then have the nuts fastened to the plastic frame. Then I could just spin each bolt with a motor (4 motors for 4 bolts, even lowering and allows for cheaper/weaker motors to be used) to lower the plastic. I was wondering how I could cut off the motors without the springs pushing it back up when it hits the vacuum area so I don't burn out the motors, but I'm thinking that the vacuum pressure alone should be able to do that. If not I can always make a timed lock mechanism with a solenoid or something
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