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Post by Mysterion on Nov 8, 2011 9:21:32 GMT -6
OK time to show my age, who remembers these things? I don't know why, but it popped into my head look to see what they are getting on ebay for them. I found them from $7.50 to $150 for a rebuilt hotrod version.
After thinking how hard it was to make the windsheild for the Bi-Polar build. This might be a viable tool for doing custom glass.
What do you think?
Does anyone remember what the vacuum parts were made of? I know it was a hand pump, but if the components were rubber, would they still be good after all this time?
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Post by badroadahead on Nov 8, 2011 11:31:50 GMT -6
I had one of these! There was a platform which you placed the mold and a frame which you mounted the plastic piece with all the holes on the edges and once the plastic sheet got to the correct temperature you would flip the frame over the mold and there was a lever on the side to pump out the air. I think there was a rubber flange on one side. It would depend on what type of rubber it was if it is still good.   |
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Post by Tory on Nov 8, 2011 11:50:45 GMT -6
If the rubber pump is gone you could always make some sort of adapter to use the houshod vacuum cleaner for suction. Probably would give a better pull anyway.
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Post by Brandon on Nov 8, 2011 12:01:38 GMT -6
On a side note... When I was young we had some kind of injection molding thing that made little insects or dinosaurs or monsters or something... I can barely remember having it, but it got really hot and the little toys that came out stunk.... Anybody know that that could have been?
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Post by A.J. on Nov 8, 2011 13:12:51 GMT -6
On a side note... When I was young we had some kind of injection molding thing that made little insects or dinosaurs or monsters or something... I can barely remember having it, but it got really hot and the little toys that came out stunk.... Anybody know that that could have been? That was the Thing Maker Brandon. It had little metal molds and you poured some kind of colored resin into them. Slid them into the oven and they came out solid I guess... My older brothers had one but I don't think I ever messed with it. I have one that I got in a lot of old toys now but I haven't messed with it either. There were all sorts of molds you could get for it too. |
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Post by donculley on Nov 8, 2011 13:19:21 GMT -6
I still have my thingmaker , but the "Plastigoop" ,as it was called, was long gone. When they reissued the Thingmaker back in the 1990's I bought some of the new goop so I could show my kids how we made bugs, , but it now had a lightbulb for heat, and it just cooked the stuff and never hardened !
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Post by mrtc4w on Nov 8, 2011 13:57:50 GMT -6
I can barely remember having it, but it got really hot and the little toys that came out stunk.... Anybody know that that could have been? Shrinky Dinks Marty Marysville, OH |
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Post by Brandon on Nov 8, 2011 15:15:19 GMT -6
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Post by mykturk on Nov 8, 2011 16:07:12 GMT -6
"Strange Change Machine" is the name you're looking for Brandon. I still have a Vac-u-form. It will make a fair windshield but, it will also reproduce the tiniest speck of dust or hair on the windshield too.
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Post by Brandon on Nov 8, 2011 16:20:30 GMT -6
Maaan, I think you might be right... if they were waxy and nasty smelling. I must have been three or four years old at the time, I can barely remember having it. I remember getting burned once or twice, and then playing with some insects and stuff that really stunk..... seems like there were some in squares now that I am thinking about it... Garsh that's been a hundred years. LOL. The video on this page is awesome... heartinajar.blogspot.com/2009/12/you-bring-strange-creatures-to-lifeyou.html |
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Post by davekapp on Nov 8, 2011 16:35:56 GMT -6
My toy that made dinosaurs and stuff was called a Time Machine-the monsters can as plastic blocks which popped into dinosaurs as they heated, they could be reheated and re-squished into blocks.
Plasti-goop is still available on eBay, it is made by someone else but they say it is better than the original.
I have a newer Vac U form but the plasic that came with it is quite thick, I tried to make a window for my "Banana Hauler" used in the TD contest here years ago but I could not get it to work properly-anyone know what kind of plastic one could use for the newer Vac-U-form?
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Post by Brandon on Nov 8, 2011 16:53:18 GMT -6
Back on topic.... (and thanks for all of your help...)
How handy would it be if you could dial in a the Vac U Form and make paintable custom bodies for models? I have a resin Devilfish that has a vaccu-formed bubble top. It's a little flimsy, but if the plastic could be a little thicker, one could totally make a body like an RC car.
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Post by mykturk on Nov 8, 2011 19:37:54 GMT -6
Back on topic.... (and thanks for all of your help...) How handy would it be if you could dial in a the Vac U Form and make paintable custom bodies for models? I have a resin Devilfish that has a vaccu-formed bubble top. It's a little flimsy, but if the plastic could be a little thicker, one could totally make a body like an RC car. When I had my big H.O. slot car track (100 feet long with all high banks. Longest single straight was 24 feet!) set up, I made lightweight bodies with the Vac-u-form. They were great but fragile. I remember impailing a light bodied car on a guard rail once. Stopped it cold. Was pretty funny at the time too. |
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Post by Honest Charlie on Nov 9, 2011 4:16:16 GMT -6
I have a Vac-U-Form that I bought a while back at a Toledo to show. Mine still works fine. I guess it would depend on how it was taken care of and stored.
I also have an original Thing Maker.
They re-popped them a few years ago. I did buy some of the goop to try. It didn't smell as bad as the original from what I remember. It seemed to work fine though.
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Post by Mysterion on Nov 9, 2011 5:56:01 GMT -6
Back on topic.... (and thanks for all of your help...) How handy would it be if you could dial in a the Vac U Form and make paintable custom bodies for models? I have a resin Devilfish that has a vaccu-formed bubble top. It's a little flimsy, but if the plastic could be a little thicker, one could totally make a body like an RC car. IIRC the cage you drop the plastic sheets on is only about 4"x4", you could never fit a 1/25 scale body on it. |
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Post by Wardster on Nov 11, 2011 13:09:05 GMT -6
How handy would it be if you could dial in a the Vac U Form and make paintable custom bodies for models? I have a resin Devilfish that has a vaccu-formed bubble top. It's a little flimsy, but if the plastic could be a little thicker, one could totally make a body like an RC car. You're pretty limited as far as the size of the parts you can make, with that machine. Canopies for model airplanes is about the limit. And that machine expects the sheet plastic's edges to be "held down" via a very specific Mattel-designed shape; which matches their machine's edges. However, with a dirt-simple homemade machine, built like this one: www.internetmodeler.com/2008/february/how-to/vacformer.php... you could do what you're saying; at most standard kit type sizes. (If you needed some oddball size, you just make a new wooden top.) As with any mold-making process, though, you'd have to plan ahead to get the shape you're wanting to make, to form correctly in a miniumum of tries. (Like injection molding, you should avoid any "undercuts," etc.) As far as "glass" (clear sheet plastic) goes, I've found that PET-G plastic is awesome. I just made a custom bubble top for a spaceship model (a scratchbuilt replica of an LP-22 model that the studio modelers made for the 1960s Gerry Anderson TV show, "Fireball XL5") using the equipment seen (in the link) above. The (female) mold I used was made from Milliput epoxy putty; which I had formed over a balsa wood (male) part I had shaped by hand. I used PET-G plastic purchased at the WarmPlastic dot com web site. Crystal clear "glass" was the result. No visible distortion of the view through the bubble - unlike many old kits! |
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Post by Wardster on Nov 11, 2011 19:56:41 GMT -6
After thinking how hard it was to make the windsheild for the Bi-Polar build. This might be a viable tool for doing custom glass. What do you think? Dumb half-off-topic question, for both Mysterion and the group: would folks here build more bubble-topped cars, if they had more ready-made bubbles to play with? Or if the bubble-making process was less scary? I ask because, now that I've gotten past that particular hurdle, it seems so easy and natural to "just" make your own custom bubble-top "glass" whenever you want such a thing ... but it wasn't that long ago that I had more than my share of doubts about that whole process; and was leery of trying to make my own bubbles or custom glass, for various models. Can I safely assume that more bubble-tops would get built, if people didn't have to rely on what comes in a limited number of kits? (And/or via other sources, such as using plastic spoons or eggs or whatever.) My old article about vacu-forming plastic parts might get an upgrade, at some future point ... probably next year; not this one ... if I thought at least a few people here would give the process a try, for themselves. |
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Post by Rob on Nov 13, 2011 10:38:45 GMT -6
I have a Mattel vacuform and it still works fine although I don't use it often. Yes there is a rubber band in the pump portion but it is lubricated with some kind of grease. I've had the unit for several decades and never had to add lubricant but I don't think it would be hard. The pump cylinder is made of plastic but fortunately the heating plate is far enough away from the pump assembly that I don't think it's heat would affect the grease or cylinder. As someone mentioned the deck is not large enough to do anything but small parts.
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Post by Mysterion on Nov 13, 2011 11:11:24 GMT -6
After thinking how hard it was to make the windsheild for the Bi-Polar build. This might be a viable tool for doing custom glass. What do you think? Dumb half-off-topic question, for both Mysterion and the group: would folks here build more bubble-topped cars, if they had more ready-made bubbles to play with? Or if the bubble-making process was less scary? Can I safely assume that more bubble-tops would get built, if people didn't have to rely on what comes in a limited number of kits? (And/or via other sources, such as using plastic spoons or eggs or whatever.) I might build more bubble tops, if I could make them to fit my build, instead of building the model to fit the bubble. I also think there is a very small percentage of body styles that fit a bubble top. To be honest, I'd say at least half of the bubble top cars and models I've seen would look better with either a better designed bubble or with a normal roof. |
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Post by Wardster on Nov 14, 2011 0:45:56 GMT -6
To be honest, I'd say at least half of the bubble top cars and models I've seen would look better with either a better designed bubble or with a normal roof. Agreed, completely. From what I've read, even back in the day, with "real" cars, only a relative handful of people designed their own bubbles; and "blew" them; and then, built their own cars around them. Guess it's a major pain, with 1:1 scale cars ... but it's not that bad, with the much-smaller ones we're dealing with. Especially if a person is forming into a smooth female mold; and uses PET-G clear plastic. PM me, Mysterion, if you want to see what I mean about how optically clear a homemade bubble can be. I can't show the (off-topic, anyway: a 1960s spaceship design) model I'm thinking of in public, since it's already committed / laid up / being printed for an article ... and I always give my publishers an exclusive on such things, since they're investing a lot of time and money and so on ... but I'd send you some lower-res images in e-mail, if you want to see what I'm talking about. You sound 90% ready to give the process a try, and I'd like to supply the other 10% of "push"; in hopes of seeing you (and maybe others) "blowing bubbles". -- Ward Shrake -- |
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Post by George1 on Nov 15, 2011 2:25:35 GMT -6
I have a Mattel Vacuform there great for 1/25 cars I make fender skirts, hood scoops, windshields, and other stuff that will fit up on the plate. I've made some beautiful parts and when I make a hood scoop it's more in scale then kit parts. And yep you have to keep the the molds clean dust free. Also there's a guy that makes a rebuild kit for them or you can design a hookup for a vacuum cleaner hose.
George
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Post by mrtc4w on Dec 9, 2011 8:09:39 GMT -6
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Post by Wardster on Dec 28, 2011 17:54:44 GMT -6
Now that 'The Bosses' over at " Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller" have the previews up, online, I can simply link to them here: www.scififantasymodeller.co.uk/English/welcome.php... and point out that if you look for 21st Century Modeller amongst their book titles, over there; and if you view the preview pages for that special issue, you'll see (on the preview pages labelled 6 and 7) what I meant, before, about how optically clear a home vacu-formed, totally custom bubble-top can be, when you use PET-G plastic. You can even see a few recognizable Batmobile bits (Keaton-mobile, I think it was) within the cockpit, under that custom bubbletop I made for the "LP-22" spacecraft replica that I scratch-built for that issue. PET-G is, as I had mentioned a month or so ago, very suitable for vacu-forming clear parts. It can be sourced from places like www.warmplastic.com/ if you're inclined to give the process of making your own bubbletops or whatever a try. |
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Post by otto69 on Dec 29, 2011 1:04:47 GMT -6
One tool not yet mentioned in the thread was a Mattel injection molder. You'd drop slugs of colored plastic slugs of plastic in a machine that got quite hot inside and melted the slug into liquid. 2 piece metal molds were clamped together and slid under the injection nozzle and you pressed down on a handle on top. The liquid platic was like napalm. Mine worked quite well until I bore down on the handle before waiting for the plastic to melt fully and it snapped. The molds it came with made cowboys and indians.
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Post by Honest Charlie on Dec 31, 2011 19:30:55 GMT -6
One tool not yet mentioned in the thread was a Mattel injection molder. You'd drop slugs of colored plastic slugs of plastic in a machine that got quite hot inside and melted the slug into liquid. 2 piece metal molds were clamped together and slid under the injection nozzle and you pressed down on a handle on top. The liquid platic was like napalm. Mine worked quite well until I bore down on the handle before waiting for the plastic to melt fully and it snapped. The molds it came with made cowboys and indians.    |
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