Although it doesn't move as smooth and solid as I like, it works great from pulling the plastic down and the joints are spring loaded and hold the frame in any position.
I added a fiberglass/foil baffle to the bottom of the heater box to create a better seal around the frame. This helps circulate the air and even out the heat.
After using the PETG, I tried some 1/16" styrene.
It appeared to work just as well as the PETG, however the result still wasn't ideal. In order to improve this first added more holes to the vacuum table, made the holes a little bigger and modified the heating elements to be more even. With all the modifications I still was not getting the results I desired, so I went out and got a more powerful shop vac. I got a new more powerful shop vac. However the results still didn't improve that much.
Despite not being able to get the great results I imagined, I moved on to having fun with the vacuform machine. I chose to make a mask that would go along with some fake swat helmets I had from a short film in college.
The mask was not meant to be anything fancy, just a quick little project made from junk in my garage. The mold was made from a metal bowl, and various plastic pieces hot glued to it. Here it is:
My next project was to test out how well I could vacuform that foam sheet they sell at Michaels. It turns out it works great!
I brought out some of my nicer masks (Chiang Mai Thailand on the left and Hawaii on the right) because I wasn't worried about the soft foam damaging them.
I was taking a chance with how close the Hawaiian mask was to the edge of the vacuform table.
However they pulled great and kept all the detail!
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