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Darktrooper Progress thread (Pic intensive!)
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tubachris85x
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Joined: 15 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:01 pm    Post subject: Darktrooper Progress thread (Pic intensive!) Reply with quote

I thought I'd go ahead and do another thread to show everyone my current project thats gonna take all my skills to complete (whatever skills those may be lol) I will be doing a Battlefront 2 Darktrooper, completly from scratch. I have begun work on the Jetpack and just recently my FX TK bucket, which turns out to be perfect for the Darktrooper. Here are some pics for right now of what I have going. These pics go in chronilogical order..



This piece is the very bottom nozzle of the JP thruster, which I used its size to create the whole JP's size measurements.















These parts are the pieces on the Darktrooper that remind me of the frankenstein bolts in a way, there are sopposed to be 6, but I accidentally messed one up. 2 on each side of the knees, and 2 on the chest.













Thats all I have now, need to get some more materials, and need to find some areators for my helmet. If anyone knows where I can get those for an FX helmet as well as the helmet decals, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks guys!

-tubachris
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jegner
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very cool!

Keep us posted on the project. I love seeing scratch built stuff!

Jim
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kinda sorta an update, but not the kind I'd like..


Well, I thought I was going to have access to a vacu-form machine, but due to some complications, im not going to be able to. So that means I have to build one myself. Im not going to build an extavagent device, just enough to do the job, tight budget, and limited space.

Im thinking of making it this way:

-use two hoarse saddle stands

make a flat rectangular box, big enough for the molds i'll be making as well.

Use wood to construct the box, and put a hole at the bottom, and use calk to seal the inside. Would it matter if i used wood instead of metal for the actual table top where I would drill the holes? Because I wont have access to welding equipment or even know how to weld any metal frames together.

Heat source is still unclear, may need to find a scrap heater somewhere.

I can only use materials found at either home depot or lowes, ordering online will have to wait until i need the plastics. Please let me know if theres anything else i may need to do. Thanks

-tubachris
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tubachris85x
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Joined: 15 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I plan to have the vents for all six sides completed and painted tonight hopefully. I also figured the cost to build a forming table really cheap that I feel woud work. I went by a home depot, and found MDF sheets for about 6 bucks, and I thne came across sheets of really thick pegboard. What I like about the peg board other then the already drilled holes is that the topside surface has a thin sheet of alluminum, which I really wanted to have. I figure building the box out of mdf and using that pegboard for the surface. For both Items, would only cost like $10, which would save me ALOT lol. I'll try to get some more pics up tonight.

-tubachris
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drcrash
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="tubachris85x"]Kinda sorta an update, but not the kind I'd like..
make a flat rectangular box, big enough for the molds i'll be making as well.
[quote]

What is the box for? Are you talking about a hollow platen, or an oven frame, or what?

If you want something good, fast, and cheap, go with a board with a hole in it, a bit oversized. You can cut it down later to make a TJ style sandwich platen if you want. In the meantime, you can put any size gasket on it, on a tape-down sheet.

What size plastic are you aiming to heat? What proportions?

Quote:
Heat source is still unclear, may need to find a scrap heater somewhere.


If you want a really cheap bottom heater, you might try a couple of old waffle irons surrounded by an aluminum flashing wall. They have 2 square nichrome coil IR heaters in each one. (You need to take off the waffly plates, but those come right off for cleaning.) You can get waffle irons for about $2 each if you have a Goodwill Blue Hanger store nearby.

(You will need to redistribute the IR some like I did for my aluminun pans oven, with disposable grill toppers or something.)
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Tired of buying cheap plastic crap? Now you can make your own! www.VacuumFormerPlans.com
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wastalking about the hollow table top box where I would actually set the molds on top of and have the vacumm attached to. I figured it will work for that function once its sealed around the edges, minus the surface holes. Forgive me, but I do not know all the correct terms and names for each piece. The way I see making this hollow box, is sitting it on top of two saw hoarses and having an extra frame, either attached with hinges or not, to hold the styrene sheets. The waffle irons sounds like a freat idea, but I do not know of any goodwill bluehanger warehous near me, but I will search for one, the hardest part of this would be acquiring the heat source cause my mom (as many other people's moms) would kill me if I used the oven. Thanks. Small update comming soon.

-tubachris
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heres the small update for now, I managed to finish the vents for the jetpack. I kept the accuracy from the games reference pics, having each of the 6 vent sides havin 6 flaps.



Also finished some of the walls



-tubachris
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heres another update......


Got started on the assembly of the main box on the main side of the jetpack
LMK what you guys think so far.







-tubachris
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jegner
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looks like you are on your way!

Keep us posted on your progress!

Jim
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drcrash
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tubachris85x wrote:
I wastalking about the hollow table top box where I would actually set the molds on top of and have the vacumm attached to. I figured it will work for that function once its sealed around the edges, minus the surface holes. Forgive me, but I do not know all the correct terms and names for each piece. The way I see making this hollow box, is sitting it on top of two saw hoarses and having an extra frame, either attached with hinges or not, to hold the styrene sheets.


The platen is the flat thing with one or more holes in it that you put the molds on.

It doesn't need to be a "box"---it should either be a board with a hole in it, and a vacuum hose attached to the hole, or a very thin sandwich "box", with only a small gap between two boards. (No more than a quarter of an inch.)

(I suggest going with the simple board-with-a-hole-in-it, at least at first.)

You can the platen directly on your horse saddle supports, or sawhorses, or something. If you make a box, you should think of it as just a support frame for the platen, not a vacuum box. (The platen shouldn't be permanently attached or sealed to it.)

If you make a big thick box that you suck the air out of, you'll need to replace it if you upgrade to a high vacuum system. A big thick box that you suck air through doesn't do any good anyway, so it's better to start with a board-with-one-big-hole, or a thin sandwich construction.

You should probably read this:
http://www.tk560.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=466

Paul
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm....well that just changed my whole design plan, I guess siince I want to use the pegboard, I'll just use the thin box idea, because I need to have air drawn from all the holes, not just one. I want to be able to have all the details brought out, and I think just having one hole will limit it to one specified area. I was thinking using the pegboard, and making the walls of the box no more than the thickness of the MDF sheet, which I think I can get for 1/2 inch. Im making the platen 2 1/2 ft x 2 /12 ft just because I dont want to have to worry about molds not fitting on there. Im 6'7 tall and about 280 lbs, proportionate, and the molds I'll be making must fit.

I also want to make a lip around the sides of the platen to allow the frame to lay on there evenly with the platen as well, so I need to figure how to raise the platen about an inch above the box. I'll figure something out.

-tubachris
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drcrash
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tubachris85x wrote:
I need to have air drawn from all the holes, not just one. I want to be able to have all the details brought out, and I think just having one hole will limit it to one specified area.


It absolutely will not, not at all, if you have your molds up on spacers at least 1/8" high, and there is a route for the vacuum to follow from under each mold, without a bottleneck.

As long as there are no bottlenecks, air is very, very good at flowing to equalize pressure (including "negative" pressure) throughout whatever space is under the plastic.

Likewise, the hole doesn't have to be in the middle. You can put it in a corner, if you like, so long as there's about an inch of cross-section to the pathways to there from wherever the air is that needs to be sucked out. In that case, putting one big hole in an extreme corner will be every bit as good as having tiny holes every quarter of an inch, all over the board. Air is perfectly happy to flow around corners and take whatever route is necessary to get anywhere that the air pressure is lower, so long as the pathways aren't too narrow. If there's no bottleneck anywhere, the air pressure everywhere under the plastic will be almost exactly equal.

This is something that industrial thermoforming people know that amateurs do not. Amateurs in general have not worked out the physics, and naively think that the following are true:

1. a big thick box helps distribute the vacuum more evenly
2. a bunch of small holes helps distribute the vacuum more evenly

These things are just false, as long as there are no bottlenecks, and the path sizes you need to avoid bottlenecks are surprisingly small.

(I think that's really what perpetuates thick boxes with pegboard on top---they look right to people who are naive about the physics of airflow. And since people see other people doing it, they think their naive intuitions about this are right. It's the blind leading the blind around in circles.)

That's one reason why a lot of industrial thermoforming machines don't even come with platens at all. They figure you can easily make a platen whatever size and shape you want, or a box for female molds, or whatever you need---because making an excellent platen is dead simple if you understand a couple of basic principles.

And as far as getting better detail goes, the ONLY thing about platen design that matters to that is how much airflow you have under the molds, after the plastic is pulled down, when you need to pull it tight. All the other holes on the board are useless at that point, because they're covered with plastic.

(This isn't actually a big deal if you're platen isn't designed badly, either way. Once the plastic is mostly pulled down, you don't need a lot of airflow to get more detail anyway---just high enough vacuum at not-very-much flow. But in terms of detail, one big hole is certainly no worse than many small ones, and maybe better.)
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see wat you are saying, its all about the airflow. Nothing else really matter, unless there is airflow. This will just simplify the construction for me. Thank you for your help and information. I tried to find the James Thurston book, but for some reason, the library near me dosnt have one.
Shocked

Thanks again, I'll be off to the hardware store soon.

-tubachris
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jegner
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tubachris85x wrote:
I see wat you are saying, its all about the airflow. Nothing else really matter, unless there is airflow. This will just simplify the construction for me. Thank you for your help and information. I tried to find the James Thurston book, but for some reason, the library near me dosnt have one.
Shocked

Thanks again, I'll be off to the hardware store soon.

-tubachris


You really should spring for your own copy of his book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1558701281/qid=1086730486/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/103-4033176-3355803?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Lots of great molding and casting tips in there. Not just vacuum forming tips.
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tubachris85x
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok guys, MAJOR UPDATE

I finally got the nerve to go down to Lowes to seek materials for my vacu-form box. The thing was that their customer servie sucks! I called for someone to help me at leat 45 times, becuase I wanted to get a sheet of MDF cut down. No one ever came, so I took initiative, and found already cut down wood that will work other then the MDF. Its 2ft x 2ft table now, took me 2 and 1/2 hours to build tonight. I put a hole through the center (well almost center) as. Its simply amaziing how I managed to build this thing from only a dremel, some left over screws, and $13 worth of wood....Anywyas, Im hoping to convice my mom to let me use her oven, an another reason for her to kill me...For you experts, please be kind, its my first one Very Happy




Well despite my fiasco at lowes on my search to find someone in my almost blind anger, I came across the hardest piece I thought I would take forever to find. For the jetpack, there is on the sides of the protruding boxes at the top, a round piece, which I could not find anywhere in the hardware store, but just came across this accidentally. Matches perfectly, despite the square thing in the middle, but I dont care at this point.




Enjoy

-tubachris
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