Create plastic ramps - Vacum forming

[dave]

I was creating a table the other day that has a lot of plastic ramps (more than wh20). When we get around to doing a whitewood this is something that I'll be trying out for game testing, not with clay but wood for sharper finish. 42" oven would be nice but can be joined.

https://flic.kr/p/hoZavT

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-good,-cheap,-upgradeable-sheet-plastic-vacu/
http://www.pinrepair.com/vacuum/

 

[Wizcat]

I have toyed with the idea of doing that. The only thing I'm not sure on is getting a clean cut / plastic lip once it has been vacuumed. Can't imagine a sharp knife and steady hand would suffice. Do they use a hot blade thing or something?

 

[dave]

Yeah heated should be ok I'd imagine or with a scalpel blade. In the first link I don't think they cut it from the mold because can see some overhang in one picture.

I would've left the plastic on the mold with the lip made from ply/balsa, or anything thin for a lip, and cut along that for a nice cut.

If you click then download these pictures @ original resolution you can get much a better look, I don't think that's a bad job at all.

https://flic.kr/p/hp6ar2

https://flic.kr/p/hp4FkB

But here you can see the clay molding maybe, looks a bit wobbly, not the cut but mold with clay. Pretty sure with solid, flush wood it would be nicer.

https://flic.kr/p/hp4Gm4

 

[dave]

https://flic.kr/p/hp5g5j

See some cracked edges on that one. That was a wood mold but cut cracked.

 

[replicas]

Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[Rus121]

Now you got me wondering about using this method to reproduce broken ramps, using the broken ramps themselves as the mold. Good stuff.

 

[dave]

I would deffo give it a go. It's like £3 a sheet of the PETG. I've seen the price of one wh20 ramp, nearly choked.

Had a look into how to smooth off edges and sometimes it's done with a blowtorch. Sounded strange at the time but have seen a couple of videos now, same method to polish/clean ramps.