Vacuum Forming

[gannon]

I finally got some good heating elements for a vacuum form, so I decided to do a trial form with my nesp case design. I've come across a few problems while forming so I figured I'd ask here.
1. wrinkles in the plastic: Yeah, on my first try there were wrinkles on the top of the plastic, I think that's just from not lowering it onto the bust level.
2. plastic doesn't grip the sides of the bust: When I formed it the plastic didn't really go straight down the sides like I expected. I did get a fairly good right angle on one side, but the others aren't as good. I think that's from either not having the plastic hot enough around the edges

[Gamelver]

also, make sure that there's no air leaking in from the sides somehow...a good vacuum is needed to form well

[gannon]

Thanks for the tip. I searched around the form and found a 1/4" hole where air was escaping, I patched it with some tape and it works great
On my first attempt to form a part for my nesp the force from the vacuum pulling the plastic actually crushed my bust

After that I decided to try forming a nes controller

The suction was strong enough to actually pull the plastic underneath it and form some of the insides too

[A.J. Franzman]

You need to clamp the plastic all the way around all 4 sides so it can't pull in like that. Using a wider piece might help.

Also, to keep from wasting so much plastic, you could fill up the space on your former and mold multiple items in one sheet.

[gannon]

Those 2 were just made with scrap pieces of plastic I had as a test. I'll be making a frame to hold the plastic later