Vac forming machine build Qvack.

[andsetinn]

Hi.

I thought I'd share few pictures of my homemade vac machine. I didn't follow any particular design, it's just built out of stuff I had lying around and the form follows the function. The tools used are circular saw, jigsaw, hand-held router and battery powered drill. I had to name it something so I chose the name Qvack, from vac and Quack.

First the vacuum table. As you can see there are no supports for the table. I believe it's thick enough not to need them.


With "vacuum-cleaner" motor. There are similar motors are inside many vacuum cleaners.


Motor "installed".


Machine "skeleton".


Plastic holder installed. Note the drawer-rails I use to slide the holder up and down. Much easier than building rails from scratch but I have to be careful not to load them sideways.


Materials for heater. Metal shelf and oven heater elements.


Heater built (the heating element still needs to be securely fastened.). That element is about 1300 watts.


Finished machine (although this kind of machine is never finished ).


Second pull, the first was utter failure.


Body from third pull. Still needs more work.


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[trophy]

Please keep us informed of your progress as I would love to know how you get rid of the webbing (excess material) in the corners

[svenakela]

Wow! I really like the simplicity and the vauum cleaner motor idea. I've been thinking of making a simple former for some experiments (and to have the kids interested in work shopping). This better be the way to go!

[Dzogchen]

Please explain how you wired and control the heating element. Very nice job! I saw something on here about spacing your pattern up and lowering heat to avoid those problems, but I don't know anything about this stuff...Good luck!

[andsetinn]

The element is on or off. Just wired through a switch.
I reduced the webbing by raising the form a bit, roughing the outside a little, drilling few extra "ventilation holes" in the form and using Polycarbonate instead of PET.