Airhockey vacuform table

[Dr Morbius]

I have an old air hockey tabletop that no longer functions as I was gonna throw it out I noticed the little holes already drilled in it plus the sealed chamber might make a good vacuform table. I would of course replace the fan underneath it with a shopvac attachment. Anyone try this before? The top itself is laminated wood with a plastic veneer I would need to remove.

[The_Caretaker]

Not sure you would want to remove the plastic veneer, since the plastic is only softened not melted you shouldn't have any problem with sticking especially since you will need to use a good wax for a release agent also how far apart are the holes in the table top, you may need to add more if they are to far apart

[Frighteners Entertainment]

Would love to see how you could make this work.

[DeathTouch]

It almost sounds like you could make something scary or spooky from a airtable. My problem today is my Jedi mind powers are lacking. But I can clearly see something magical that you could make.

[Sickie Ickie]

Like a magical table that has little discs levitating on it. :p

[Dr Morbius]

Not sure you would want to remove the plastic veneer, since the plastic is only softened not melted you shouldn't have any problem with sticking especially since you will need to use a good wax for a release agent also how far apart are the holes in the table top, you may need to add more if they are to far apart
The holes are about 1" apart. I'll leave the plastic veneer and try it. I also obtained some oven heating elements that must run on 220V. I wonder if heatlamps would do? This would be cool for forming skulls and reproducing bones and whatnot.

[The_Caretaker]

At one time I saw that someone was using electric charcoal lighter for a heat source on their vacuum table. Also you may want to put holes 1/2 inch apart where you plan on doing most of your molding

[CraigInPA]

The holes are about 1" apart. I'll leave the plastic veneer and try it. I also obtained some oven heating elements that must run on 220V. I wonder if heatlamps would do? This would be cool for forming skulls and reproducing bones and whatnot.

Most of the hobbiest designs use heat lamps set up in a grid, with the bulbs almost touching each other. Vacuum forming works well for items that are only to be finished on 4 of the four sides, since, by design, the bottom surface will always be flat. That would pretty much eliminate skulls and bones. Things like skulls are normally done on a blow-moulding machine, which can form items under pressure through a small aperature.

Craig

[Gory Corey]

This may help
http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html

Ralis is a H-wood effects guy, very nice work.
I am working on a larger scale model semi based on his design.

[RookieSpooker]

I was thinking of building one of these also. I wanted to make skulls in mass quantity to mound up on top of graves. I figured I could do a front half and back half and glue and paint. Does anyone know what those plastic sheets are or where you can get them? It seems that you would be able to form most anything as long as there were two halves, and there wasn't too many undercuts.

[Gory Corey]

I wanted to make skulls in mass quantity to mound up on top of graves. I figured I could do a front half and back half and glue and paint.

You are better off making a silicon mold (either a costly block or make a mother mold for a thin blanket mold) of your skull of choice then using a 2 part expanding urethane foam (2 lb would suffice). You only need something like 40 grams of resin per skull and they would pop out every 30-40 minutes.

I have a 6 skull mold now that I can crank out half a dozen at a shot, with no trimming or gluing after the fact.

Nice thing is you can prepaint the mold first so it comes out ready for some simple dry brushing.

I am building the thermoformer for our retail box inserts since we will need limited amounts per run for the 5 webber models, and another project I cannot disclose yet.

As far as the plastic, you should be able to call a local plastic supply house and discuss thermoforming sheets with them.

[Dr Morbius]

You can use polyurethane sheets from plastic supply houses or sign companies.