Anyone else getting creative with plastic vacuum forming machines?
"Anyone else getting creative with plastic vacuum forming machines?
I've been playing with my plastic vacuum forming machine for a couple of years, mostly for simple external packaging shells and the rare custom mould for small business prototyping. But after recently going down a rabit hole scrolling through material on Alibaba I was BLOWN AWAY how creative people are getting with this tech.
I was scrolling through a Bilibili the other day where someone was form-printing and laser cutting layers together into like a fusion of textures!! Jewellery moulds with LED cavities, visors for cosplay that curl around the face etc. Custom roll forms for chocolates was crazy. The guy literally 3D printed like a figure, reversed formed a plastic shell on it, poured it with his melted chocolate and literally made a figure replica of it!! Crazy.
I find it nuts the amount of applications for vacuumforming that are coming out of the woodwork. The random desktop machines like mine are used for schools STEM projects, people making sculptural lamps and decor, and small businesses are using them for their own blister packaging so they don't have to pay through the nose for custom boxes anymore. I watched one videos where someone remade their phonecase into a mould to form their own! One even made a mould for concrete planters! The basic ""Heat/stretch/suck"" is so simple yet oh so versatile.
My vacummform machine ain't fancy but does the job for prototyping and small runs. Still feel like I'm only month or so into using it. Be intersting to hear other creative combos of materiales and things you mind up with?"