www.TK560.com

[CrazyFool]

I guess now we know why they call you inventor!

What you are doing is so great. For years I've tired of listening to people complain about how everything is made in China. I've always felt like saying, "Why don't you make something and be part of the solution?"

I do some painting as an apartment manager and I can't stand a paint tray that has old paint stuck in it. I'm always buying new trays.

Congratulations!!! The surest way to make a million dollars is repeat sales through small business (not the stock market and not not real estate).

CF

[inventer]

I call myself an inventer, for the last 20 years I've been always trying to make something out of nothing. I've been to the Patient lawer now about 6 times trying to get patients for something, made about 50 different things that fell thru, but my mine never stops. As a painter I don't like the paint build up in my pans either, so I always buy the liners for the 9" pans, than I had the idea for my 18' roller pans, cleaning up on jobs with no water is a pain, so I took two 9' pan liners and cut them in half, taped them together, hey, this works pretty good, so I asked my sales rep. at the paint store if I can get 18" liners, he told me everyone's been asking for them for years, no companys make them that he could ever find. Light bulb went on in my head, so I was at my chiropractors one day and he said why don't you make a vac-u-former, I said whats that ? He said when he was a kid, he had one to make little Mattel cars. I typed in vac-u-formers and was blown away when I came across you guys. I made 25 trays on sunday, took them to work yesterday and again was blown away, first guy I showed them to wanted 10, right off the bat, the next guy bought the other 12, WOW, I thought I'd only sell one or two at a time. So after work last night, even thought I was tired, went out to the garage and pulled another 25 until after 6pm. My hopes are high. Nice thing about me, I've been self-employed for 30 years, so I know I can make a good go at this. If you have to work for the MAN, make the man yourself. Hows your pulls going crayfool ? Oh, by the way, the pattern I made out of Oak is working great, no Sap, no baby powder, it's awsome. All you guys still plugging away at your machines, don't give up, it'll all work out in the end, keep trying. Tony

[CrazyFool]

Man what a thrill that must be to have guys buying your stuff. Persistence pays eh? It's amazing the little comments and bits of information that cause you to turn a corner and arrive at a place. Like the comment from your chiropractor. If he hadn't said that then...? That's why I believe in God. Anyway, congratulations again! "Who Dares Wins."

My pulls are going great. I'm up to my elbows in plastic molds. That's one reason I haven't been posting. Too busy pulling. I must have missed your earlier comment about using oak. I can see how oak would be fantastic. I never even thought of that. I have a drawer full of little inventions I've doodled on paper over the years but I've never tried to apply for a patent. Sounds really fun. lol I may have to try that before long. I'm thinking about taking my profits from this project and pouring them into making a professional 4'x4' vacuforming machine and going on to make some real money. We'll see. You know how it is. Sometimes just getting through the project you're on is about all you can handle.

CF

[inventer]

Patients is a funny business. This last time I only found one local Patient lawer in our area, my other one retired. This one was very nice, charged $250.00 an hour, patient search will cost you around two thousand dollars, plus thier fee. The patient application from the Gov. costs five thousand dollars, takes up to two years, and if you getting accepted, you get a pat. pending untill it's final. Now for my trays, I could not get a patiend because theirs to many simularities to the roller pans that a company already makes with a patient. I can get a trademark right, for two thousand dollars as long as no one else has anything like mine or is not simular in any way, so I'm not going to bother. I figure in about a year, it'll catch on and some big company will start making then by the tens of thousands and fload the market with them for less money, you know what happens then, people buy cheap, but I'll have fun until then. If God lets me win the lottery, than I can have a company make them for me and have a company sell then to, but thats big dreaming, don't see me as a millionare, I'm going on 50 yr's old now. Great to hear your pulling, hoping there all coming out good for you. I realized yesterday I just don't have enough room in the garage now, for pulling, stacking, trimming and stacking then again. Keep up the good work, wonder how the other guys are doing that were posting on their projects ??? Tony

[ahillworks]

You guys are so inspiring I swear. Good to read about the whole trade mark and pat thing. Guys I will be in the same boat till i get a good loan or a whole bunch of money. Its coming along. Building a website now and making the last touches on the former to make smaller stages of plastic so I dont have any in the waste. Will keep you more posted. But you guys are awesome.

[inventer]

Hi again guys, I was pulling plastic today and my sweety came out to the garage with the video camera so I could show you guys my set up. Not like a professional machine, but from stuff I have laying around and bought some stuff here and there. I hope the link works, I'm no computer geek, but not bad at times.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v81/vanner40/pulling%20videos/?action=view&current=S3010007.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v81/vanner40/pulling%20videos/?action=view&current=S3010009.flv

If you guys have any questions, I'll try to answer them the best I can, and or even take video camera back out to garage to show you certain things that you may ask about. Yes I can be quite a ham, but hey, if you can't have fun living, why live, I'll never let my heart grow old, lifes to much fun. Thanks for watching guys, you all have been the best help. Tony

[DarthVader1]

"Impressive, most impressive!"

Nice job. Your vac machine looks complicated (the setup, that is), but as long as you could perform your job on it, that's not problem. Only thing about a "permanent designed" vac machine, is that when it's time to pull some other jobs and/or with different materials, you won't get the same results. Just my 2¢ on it.

Other than that.....Nice job!
_________________
Robert
BH/TK/TB/TS 060

[inventer]

Hi Darth, it's really easy to us, just turn on heat, cut plastic, put in frame, heat & pull, thats it. The extras like the venting system is to work in the AC, if it's cool outside, I don't turn on exaust fan, I just open the garage door with the opener. I don't see my machine as being permanent, all I have to do is detatch it from the duct work, it's on wheels to move around, the whole unit only weights about 50lbs, now of coarse I can't close it up to carry around, but can roll it any where I want. When I have some time on my hands, I do want to play around with thicker plastics and different molds to see what else I can make for the fun of it. This is so much fun, playing out in my garage and making a few extra bucks. I have a few ideas for other stuff, but for now I'm gonna make some money, whooooo, hooooooo. Tony

[ANH trooper]

Nice vids Tony!

Your machine is very similar to mine. I like how you have your frames sliding up one post on each side with loop/bracket to guide it. I think I am going to borrow your idea for mine as I am using a bar wedged inbetween two posts which is complicated. Your sliding mechanism looks much simpler and better.

One thing I noticed in your video is that you cool down the mould, where I always heat mine up. Most industrial vacuum formers use heat regulated aluminium moulds to help the plastic stretch out more even. If I don't heat mine up I get thin parts where the plastic has stretched more because the first part of the hot plastic that hits the mould cools almost immediately and cause the rest the stretch more, making it thinner. This is with .080 ABS though and I can see you are using much thinner and different material.

Just letting you know for future refernce if you decide to use other plastics

-Paul.

[CrazyFool]

WOW Inventor. Great videos!!!

Sorry for the short comment. We had a big family reunion over the weekend that hasn't ended yet.

CF

[TK 109]

very impressive videos, "just me in my garage, doing my thing, casually vacuforming paint trays..." SWEET! now that's cheaper than buying a new tray, eh? just form it and go.

you hold your plastic in like i do. screws. works for me, does the job, right?

awesome vids, keep it up!
_________________
-Alex

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[inventer]

Thanks guys, you's all have been a big help. Yup, it's fun but sometimes frustrating. I love my garage, thats my space away from the world. I'm still looking for a latch of some sort, doing the screw thing is getting old, but it works, guess thats all that matters. Hey, use any ideas you see on my machine, it's been changed so many times, the lifting arm parts was changed I think 5 times till I got it to work right. Selling them isn't going as I thought it would, but I'll keep working on that. I'm by no means a salesmen, never could BS people into buying something they don't need or want, so I'll probally seak out a marketing agency, if their price is with in reason. Mean while I might buy some thicker plastic and see what I can make, alot of strange things come from by brain. Have fun guys, keep us posted on how you's are doing on your projects, Tony

[ahillworks]

[fast_monte]

Inventer:

For holding the frames together I would recommend using spring clamps like the ones you used to hold the plastic while cutting it. It works pretty well on my machine.

[fast_monte]

Inventer:

Also if you wouldn't mind letting us in on the kind of plastic you are using and where you got it. I make clamshell packages with my machine and I am almost out of plastic. I had one of my venders send a roll over from China last time.