I've been working on making a pickup winder based on a cordless drill and so far, so good. But I have come to a stand still on that waiting on parts and according to tracking, I won't have them until Monday July 24.

To fill the time gap, I came up with a related project. I was thinking "what am I going to use for pickup covers?". This lead me to DIY low suction vacuum forming machines and after reading a few articals and watching a few YouTubes, I came up with my own design.

I decided to make mine very small. Why? Well, first of all, I am not going to be making stage props, just small simple parts. But also, Being retired and on a fixed income, economics played a more important roll. You see, the plastic used in vacuum forming costs on average about $5 for a 12" x 12" x .040" thick piece.

My mini vacuum former has a platen of 5" x 5" and a frame that holds a 6" x 6" piece of plastic. $1.25 mistakes are a lot more palatable than $5 mistakes on an 11" x 11" platen.

The platten base is made from 3/8" x 2-1/2" radiata pine. This was meant for a short scale bass box guitar but...

I just used butt joints - glued and screwed. The top of the platen is some scrap pegboard I had but I drilled 4mm holes in between the existing holes.

On one side of the platen, I used a 1-1/4" hole saw to accept the hose from my little Hang-Up shop vac. Unfortunately, the actual hole it makes is 1-3/8" dia. so, to solve this, I could have just wrapped some duct tape around the end of the vac hose but, I found that a plastic medicine vial was perfect for making an adapter - which I epoxyed in.

Around the platen bass I attached some 3/4" x 1/2" poplar scrap I had and put 3/4" x 1/4" foam weather stripping for the bottom frame half to meet and keep flush with the platen top.

Unseen in the photos is a 4-1/4" x 4-1/4" piece of 1/4" MDF glued in to make a bottom for the platen.

The frame halves are also made from radiata pine. I ripped the pine down the center to give me (roughly) 3/8" x 1-1/4" strips and made the top frame half with all four sides of this dimension. The bottom frame half has two parallel sides 3/8" x 1-1/4" and two parallel sides 3/8" x 2-1/2", this is to accommodate the guide post dowels.

The frame openings are 5-1/16" square so nothing binds up. I rubbed paraffin on the dowels so the frame slides up and down smoothly.

I spent about $10 on the hardware:

1 - 4 pack of 1-1/2" x 1-1/2 corner braces
1 - 4 pack of 2-1/2" x 2-1/2 corner braces (these larger ones were over kill)
8 - 1" long bolts
8 - wing nuts
5/8" dowel (under a dollar for 3' @ Walmart)

I used a scrap piece of 3/4" MDF to mount everything on.

Enough talk, here are the pictures:

I did make a test run, it was a fail but encouraging. The plastic I used was not meant for vacuum forming, I think it is an opaque defuser for fluorescent light panels. I thought it may be useful for pickguard material but it is very brittle and chips too easy. It's about 1/16" thick.

When I heated it with a heat gun, it never did sag like the plastic in the videos despite heating it for 3-4 min. but it did look like it was going to blast a hole through it so I just went for it and pushed it down over the "mold". Since it wasn't forming around the mold very tightly, I continued using the heat gun but it just wasn't going to turn out as hoped.

I am fairly confident if I use the proper type plastic that is a little thinner, this little thing could work well for my needs but I do think I'm going to add some more holes in the platen top.

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Comment by Clark Rowden on August 1, 2017 at 10:48am

Thanks for the tip Micheal, I'll put that on my wm shopping list. The neighbors are moving out and I spied a good sized piece of PET on the top of their trash bin - got two nice, clear 8"x8" pieces. Guess I can see how it does now.

Comment by michael spiker on July 31, 2017 at 11:50am

i've used "for sale" signs from wally world with decent luck

Comment by Clark Rowden on July 29, 2017 at 9:06am

Skeeesix, yeah, .03" styrene is what I was planning on using. Thanks for the link to the instructable. I had actually found that and started to read it but he began repeating himself so I moved on. Interesting about the one hole platen and using metal window screen.

I bookmarked a link given in that artical concerning webbing and will read it later.

I'll have to check out local suppliers but, a lot of times I have tried to source things like that (other than screws, nuts and bolts) they want a minimum order of several hundred dollars - but you do get the individual items cheap.

Comment by Skeesix on July 29, 2017 at 3:53am

In the past, I've used styrene. Might be able to get some smaller pieces from McMaster Carr. 

I googled "plastic for vacuum forming" and some places which serve hobbyists popped up.

Here is an instructable with ideas for cheap local sources for thermoforming plastics (towards the end and in the comments). 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-good%2C-cheap%2C-upgradeable...

Comment by Clark Rowden on July 27, 2017 at 10:04pm

Wade, I don't know if PET would be suitable or not, I'm brand new at this. For pickup covers, I think it would be too flexible. But, for other things it just might be the ticket and I do like free as well as recycling. Thanks for the idea.

Comment by Wade on July 27, 2017 at 1:52pm
Would PET plastic work for your project? Recycled plastic from soda bottles, cake lids, etc; if it would work you would have an unlimited supply.
Comment by Clark Rowden on July 26, 2017 at 11:53am

I've sourced my plastic from an eBay seller that is based in Ocala, FL which is only about 120 miles away from me so shipping will be quick. Here is a link to the seller's store:

http://stores.ebay.com/sibeautomation?_rdc=1

I'm going to try some .040" stock and some .060" stock to see which is better but it is polystyrene specifically used for vacuum forming.

I just finished my pickup winder today so I haven't built any pickups yet and I'll need to do that before making pickup covers.

After I finished this project, I was still waiting on parts for the winder and was thinking of things to do in the mean time and I had a wonderful brain storm - that could turn out to be a brain fart - that has become an obsession. I'll keep it a secret for now in case it doesn't play out. But if it does I'll put a blog post up about it.

Comment by Hal Robertson on July 26, 2017 at 12:11am

Not sure what plastic you're using, but I think I read somewhere that plastic yard sale signs (Lowes, Home Depot) work well for vacuum forming. Last I saw, they had a few colors and blank ones too. Around $2 each. Not sure how they would react to a heat gun. Most of the formers I'd looked at were based on putting the frame in the oven. Good luck! Would love to know how this turns out.

Comment by Jim Morris on July 25, 2017 at 12:24am

Interesting. I know that different types of plastic react differently to heat so I think the right kind may be the key. Keep us updated please.

Comment by the anonymous pick on July 20, 2017 at 5:18am

cool

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