Mine is a wooden box, (10" x 10" x 2") mostly sealed but with a grid of 1.5mm holes in the top, and about a 1.5" diameter hole in the side.
then I have two wooden frames, one with bolts in it. another with holes to receive the bolts.

to use it I put a sheet of plastic between the two frames and bolt the frames together.
I them put this in a low oven for about five minutes.

The vacuum is provided by a regular hoover where the hose just fits in the hole in the side of my box.

when the plastic is done heating in the oven. I turn the hoover on, take the plastic out the over and just put it on top of the box, vacuum pressure does the rest!

I'll see if I can dig it out and make a video of it in use.

I already had the scrap wood laying about, so the only expense was buying a pack of M6 bolts and some wingnuts! cost about £1 at the local hardware store.

A 3d printer is probably a great tool for producing masters for moulds, (though there will be plenty of smoothing and finishing to do!!)

Gordym wrote:

Cool project! My son and I were considering making one of these to enhance our 3D printing capabilities. We would make the master print on the printer, then make a vacuum form mold of the object. After that we could make the same item several times much quicker than printing the same item again.

What material would you fill the mold with?  It would be hard to get that much ABS consistently melted, and it might melt through the vacuum-molded sheet when you pour it into the mold.

We are going to use latex to start out with. We want to make some models that are pliable. The original needs to be solid so the mold will shape properly. We are drawing up some prosthetics for some halloween costumes, etc.

wilheldp wrote:

What material would you fill the mold with?  It would be hard to get that much ABS consistently melted, and it might melt through the vacuum-molded sheet when you pour it into the mold.

A friend and I have been discussing making molds, I'd suggest some for of a resin or something of the like. Plaster maybe?

Just remember that thermoset resin curing is an exothermic reaction that can generate temperatures that could warp or melt a mold made in this fashion, depending on the resin.

What material would you fill the mold with?  It would be hard to get that much ABS consistently melted, and it might melt through the vacuum-molded sheet when you pour it into the mold.

A friend and I have been discussing making molds, I'd suggest some for of a resin or something of the like. Plaster maybe?

Cool project! My son and I were considering making one of these to enhance our 3D printing capabilities. We would make the master print on the printer, then make a vacuum form mold of the object. After that we could make the same item several times much quicker than printing the same item again.

What material would you fill the mold with?  It would be hard to get that much ABS consistently melted, and it might melt through the vacuum-molded sheet when you pour it into the mold.

In this video I was making moulds for chocolate making. If you go on youtube and search for vacuum forming you will see more applications.

Geez, Lawsy, is there anything that you DON'T do?  LOL

I'm looking at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:35402 for small chocolate truffle molds.  I'm not too worried about the lines in the plastic, but I will finish the piece a little as there is almost always some minor stringing.

In the future I might make a clear cover for the top of the solidoodle. Basically you can reproduce any shape that is made from thin plastic.

made this machine a couple of years ago, still going strong. Commercial machine was $10K, mine was ~$200. The commercial one no doubt looks a lot nicer.

In A4 and A3 size I usually work with binder booklet clear sheets. Overhead transparency sheets are designed to resist temperature and won't work. For the full size, I use polycarbonate 0.4mm sheet which is sold by the metre at the hardware store. The heaters aren't powerful enough to heat thicker plastic like clear acrylic sheet, by you can supplement with a paint stripping gun to add heat.

In the video I am moulding over carved foam blocks covered with a heat protecting material called Rosco Foamcoat. You could just as easily mould over something 3D printed, by I haven't tried it yet.

With the thin sheets, every tiny little detail comes through, so the printed pattern would need to be smoothed or sanded first.

Any questions, just ask away.