Welcome to our first build (in progress)

This is the beginning of the Journey and we hope that you enjoy following us along the way   

We hope to create a webpage for each of projects that will show the build, have the plans and talk about any considerations.

As part of the workshop of Awesome we will be building equipment to build the various projects. So wat was the reasoning behind the vacuum former being our first project. See below the

Stages of decision making for starting to make the vacuum former

• Stage 1: Let’s make a droid
• Stage 2: R2 or R4 is quite big, let’s start something smaller
• Stage 3: MSE droid perfect:
  • Weren’t we going to make a Vacuum former? That would be perfect for this
• Stage 4: We better make the vacuum former first I guess

Contents:

The build Videos
The build in Pictures
Design Considerations

 

The Build Video:

The video will go in here……

The Build in Pictures

	This is top section of the lid after the mitres were cut.
Cutting the hole for the Vacuum cleaner hose
	The bottom section walls have been glued and nailed (good job Danny)

 

Design Considerations:

• What is design envelope of the parts you are making. You do not want to make it too big or too small.
  • For use with smaller molds, you might need to make an insert into your lid so you can heat smaller bits of plastic not to waste materials.
  • Cover the holes in to allow the vacuum to be more Efficient when doing the small molds. Use bits of cardboard
• Make sure that you don’t make it too big for your heating element or stove you are putting it into. An even temperature across the plastic is required. We almost made this mistake when we designed the dimensions first and then thought to double check the dimensions oven it would go into. It would have been a disaster if we had not done this.
• Locator guilds to help you when putting on the lid can be helpful. Just don’t make them too high that they cause issues.
• Do some basic research into thermoforming. A bit of up front knowledge can go a long way . (Here are some of the ones I came across as an example
  • http://capla.arizona.edu/forms/shop/fromechvacuumguide.pdf
  • http://www.thermoform.com/tempsite/profileFlip/PP_designguide.pdf
  • http://www.multifab-inc.com/guidelines.pdf
• Cost: This is a big consideration. My advice from experience of engineering is start with something simple and learn before you invest lots of money. It can be considered part of your R&D. Building the rolls royce model straight up when you have no experience may result in a depleted bank account and what may be a very bulky and expensive paper weight.
• Time: This is the same as cost. Investing months building a Rolls Royce or Bentley model when it is your first project in thermo-forming means you are not leaning to master thermo-form. I find time is always at a premium
• Precision: If you have very tight tolerances then you may be better investing in some pre-manufactured
• Repeatability

 

Design Drawings

Here is a link to the engineering drawings (Put in link)

Build