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KEASTAB Newbie
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Webster,florida
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jegner Site Admin
Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 2144 Location: Texas, USA
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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cool! |
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flamefink
Joined: 08 May 2014 Posts: 3 Location: NE Ohio
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Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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Very cool! I've thought of building my own kick panels with speaker pods for my 48 Ford pickup too but i never thought about vacuum forming them. This might have to go on my to do list.
Did you build your own oven from scratch or is it one of the kits?
Where did you get the plans for your diy cnc? |
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KEASTAB Newbie
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Webster,florida
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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flamefink wrote: | Very cool! I've thought of building my own kick panels with speaker pods for my 48 Ford pickup too but i never thought about vacuum forming them. This might have to go on my to do list.
Did you build your own oven from scratch or is it one of the kits?
Where did you get the plans for your diy cnc? |
Proto form by doug walsh. (forgot how much they cost but it wasn't too bad and the plans were AWESOME!!!!!) was the vacuform plans and extended out to 2' x 6' so I could do my one piece consoles rear convertible trim panels and custom power window door panels for my classic car. I still have to order another zone from him to finish it up to 6 foot.
the cnc was.......$35.00
I did the umm dang gotta go look. I know they are Solsylva I think by David Steele. just google solsylva. I'm now upgrading mine to the (solsylva) newer V bearing plans and going 5'x9' for cabinet work(40' x40' garage and NO cabinets anywhere!!!) and using aluminum instead of wood (Got the BUG) also since I can't draw a circle or a straight line without major help the CNC really came in handy. I drew the part up (flat) in draftsight(free) then transferred it to CamBam $175.00 (a cad to cam type program) then the G code was sent over to the Mach3 software $ 175.00 which runs the CNC. Than put it back on the CNC to Cut it out nice and neat for me!
that way I get circles that are circles and straight lines that are straight too!
total cost was about $350.00 for runnable software and was the cheapest that I have found. Cost for me on the wood and other stuff for the cnc was
1. $695.00 (gecko drives and stepper motor kit with plug and play wiring) yeah I could have gotten cheaper but I didn't want to mess with all the soldering and wiring and they(gecko drives) are better than the cheaper alternatives.
2. Lumber and aluminum brackets (L angle 1"x1" and 3/4"x3/4") $175.00
3. paint and gas pipe for my custom length $25.00
4. printer port card for my computer $20.00
5. lead screws. I did the cheapest way first using allthread.... don't go there go to Enco and get regular lead screws (got mine on sale for 10.00 per 6 ft length) shipping cost as much as the parts did!
plus now I'm going to upgrade to the 2 start or 5 start screws which will speed up the machine drastically (cost a bunch more too!)
6. I already had a router that I was going to use but a decent one 'll run you about $100.00
and YUP I could have gotten an Ebay china made unit. probably a lot more rigid than my wooden one. BUT it wouldn't have been 39" x 66" working table. none of them were really big enough to load on some of the molds I wanted to make. one was close to fitting in the 14"x12" mold but then I discovered that the "working size" was 2 inches less (per side)than stated dimensions. soooo I customized the unit to work for me.
soo
350.00
695.00
175.00
25.00
20.00
30.00
100.00
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1295.00 or thereabouts. the more metal you use doing the CNC the more it costs. if you plan on doing ANY type of aluminum work you will need a stiffer machine. plain wood work or custom mold work for my Vacu form like I"m doing now. was it worth it ........hmmm yup sure was and I'd do it again but start with the V bearing plans from solsylva and go UP from there _________________ Newby just learning and going with the Proto form |
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backyard_cnc Novice
Joined: 01 Nov 2014 Posts: 26
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 2:15 am Post subject: |
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Nice job on the panels, they look great! I wonder what is thickness of material you used and if it is ABS? What did you use as a shrink factor on your molds? I am currently building a 2' x 3' proto form and once completely I hope to do similar types of projects.
Thanks
Gerald |
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KEASTAB Newbie
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Webster,florida
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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backyard_cnc wrote: | Nice job on the panels, they look great! I wonder what is thickness of material you used and if it is ABS? What did you use as a shrink factor on your molds? I am currently building a 2' x 3' proto form and once completely I hope to do similar types of projects.
Thanks
Gerald |
Man I love my proto form I'm waiting to save up some more money to get my 3rd zone for mine.. (ahhhh custom console,door panels and rear convertible side panels, since the console is 53inches long and too big for my 2'x4' setup) for my 66 dart convertible.
on shrinkage.
I figured for every inch about a .04" or about 0.7% linear total shrinkage for the 1/8th ABS sheet that I used. it seemed to work out right for me.
Using 1/4 ABS did not shrink as much as the 1/8 or the 1/16.
1/16 was on the top side of .7 % or .04" shrinkage
1/8 was on the lower side of the .7 % or .04" shrinkage
1/4 was on the lower side of the .5-.7 % or .03 .04" shrinkage
water filling the form to a doming state and using different thicknesses of ABS on the same mold was:
1/4 used 242CC's of fluid to dome in the mold
1/8 used 230CC's of fluid to dome in the mold
1/6 used 207CC's of fluid to dome in the mold
so there was 23CC's difference in fluid -+ a couple CC's for my old eyesight on the doming on the 1/8 to 1/16 and 12CC's difference from 1/4 to 1/8.
on my side panels made in .080 I had to lengthen the 15inch run by about 3/8th of an inch and my 6 inch height by 3/16th to fit like the original part (but fit and looked better!)
using the same mold as the 1/4, 1/8 and the 1/16
.080 Hip was a larger shrinkage factor due to to it being thinner
seems like I got about 1.0 1.5 % shrinkage but have no way to verify that.
oh and it had 190CC's of fluid to dome that part. (flexed a whole lot and was hard to stabilize to fill with fluid.)
since I'm just a beginner I'll let those with Much more experience help you out better than I could. I'm learning more each time I do something but I'm still a beginner. _________________ Newby just learning and going with the Proto form |
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backyard_cnc Novice
Joined: 01 Nov 2014 Posts: 26
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the comments and I have noted your findings for future reference once my machine is operational. Have made some progress over the past few days and updated pics can be seen in my build thread.
Gerald |
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jdougn Guru
Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 714 Location: Louisville KY area
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:54 am Post subject: |
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Great build thread and information Kurt! Watched your videos on FB. It actually surprised me how much shrinkage there is in ABS. Look forward to seeing how this works out for you. _________________ DougN - Just in case you're wondering, I got my "rating" legitimately... by posting aimless drivel, useless advice, and pointless questions. |
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KEASTAB Newbie
Joined: 21 Feb 2013 Posts: 24 Location: Webster,florida
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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jdougn wrote: | Great build thread and information Kurt! Watched your videos on FB. It actually surprised me how much shrinkage there is in ABS. Look forward to seeing how this works out for you. |
Backyard_cnc the kick panels were out of 1/8 ABS and the side convertible panels were out of .060 (they need to go up 1 or 2 levels of thickness due to stiffness and in some places being too thin.)
jdougn" yep even 1/4 abs shrinks a little more than I expected. but since my molds are not size critical or exact replicas of some part (sort-of , maybe, a little) then I can get away with a lot. that's COOL on watching the video's I didn't think any one even looked at the video's except my bragging to the family and their sort of doing it to make me feel better!
I'll have to save up for a GoPro camera if anybody watches them that way I might make some good videos.
I have way too many irons in the fire right now, but I want to do a deep draw part. I have found that the 8 inch draw in a 6"x12" hole doesn't lend itself to a male mold, can you say webbing up the wazoo!. I'm trying to figure out if a female mold with a male helper plug can get my part made... Ahh it'll only take time and a little experimenting to see. _________________ Newby just learning and going with the Proto form |
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