Case Mod - In Progress Hi-Tech armoured case by DJB Modding

Thanks , Giger is a MASTER !!!!

Thanks , I'm working to get better !!!

 

New updates

After a lot of fails , material and different process test`s , finally I get some good results.
Stop wood work and try something else

Real use of the wood pieces , vaccum forming



cut of the single pieces



I choose to make the pieces one-by-one because all of the fail was trying to make entire panels , it can be done , but I don't like the quality of the results



Preview , I hope to get better quality in the final pieces







To make this pieces , I have to build my own home-made vacuum forming machine , that explain the lack of updates

 

Excellent work! I bet that's a lot lighter than the MDF (or my armor, for that matter...)

 

DIY vacuum press? show us! that's part of the log
, aint it?

 

this...is...AWESOME.

 

Holy smokes... first off, i cant believe you didnt use a router with a 1/4 round and you did it all by HAND...

 

Thx !!!!!
kelmannen is right , here the pictures of the vacuum forming home made "machine" that I made for this project

I make the heather with 5 lamps of of 1200w , same that came in this



I can't get the correct creamic terminal to conect the lamps , so I use crocodiles until I get it

Aluminium frame and panels on MDF

Elements



Construccion







Mounted on MDF





Test



Picture of the heater near the vaccum box ( there is no secrets there , is just a MDF box with 2 holes for 2 vacuum's and A LOT of small holes at the top panel )



Test video (sorry for the bad quality and the lack of edition) , turn down the speaker volume before I turn on the vacuum

 

Awesome! Thanks for the demo.

+rep.

 

Hey there,

We had a small vac former at and old job, done a quick sketchup to illustrate some things we learnt.

1 - When you want to get a very tight fit all the way down your form raise it above the suction floor. This way it lets the plastic come under the form a little, only a few mm. It also reduces the buttress effect you get on corners where the plastic can not get sucked in close enough.



2 - Apply heat until the plastic starts to sag a little across the whole surface. It looks like you are getting good even heat across your heater box so no need to emphasise hot spots etc. When you are ready to pull down, ie vac form, remove the heat source and pull the plastic down over the model, then apply suction. The suction cools the plastic so fast if you have it running before you pull down we got worse results.



3 - Don't crowd the suction bed. We used a Henry hoover so not the most powerful of suction in the world so concentrate the suction on a small suction bed rather than a larger one. We never did more than say 4 5x5cm forms at a time as the plastic would not pull down well between the adjacent forms.



Anyway I hope that helps. Best of luck with the mod

Regards

Ed

 

Great job.
Very proffesional

 

Thx everybody !!

@k4p84 : thank you very much for the explanation , is very usefull for my !!!

The machine is not finished , still needs more work but I want to test it ( I'm very anxious) , You solve me some points of the design and save a lot of work , thx again !!!

I will turn on the vacuum AFTER press the plastic against the piece , great tip !!!

I made the vacuum table so big (50x50cm) because the original idea was to make entire panels at time , but did not work well

 

One hint from my past would be to leave the desired piece flat on the table and build a small fillet of cheap dollar store clay feathered out from the real part. Vacuum form and then trim off clay fillet on plastic.

Any lifted part has the capacity to create under wrapping that makes it hard to remove the part.

john

/ninja edit. vacuum forming is not so different than vacuum bagging Fiberglas or Carbon fiber.

 

No problem we are here to help

You could use tape to seal the vacuum box joints as well as the inlet where the vacuum hose enters.

If you want to make the vacuum bed smaller for doing individual parts you could put gaffer tape over most of the bed so leaving a smaller area of exposed holes so the suction should be concentrated there.

Keep us up to date on your progress.

Ed

 

very good work!!! and I want to see more updates.
k4p84 a very nice and practical design.

 

Keep going with the vacuum forming pieces , both side panels done.
Preparing for copy the main side panel piece , the more complicated



Good for me



A couple of images with different points of view to evaluate the quality result





All the pieces together as a preview







Next the top panel and start painting the pieces .

 

Quality of workmanship and creativity on these forums never ceases to amaze me awesome stuff sub'd

 

Thx !!! , stay tuned