www.TK560.com

[ahillworks]

Hoping to have the oven done by monday or tuesday. It went into a major redesign so it took awhile before it was being made. I will keep you all posted.

[ahillworks]

Ok, finally, as a day after Christmas present, my buddy comes up to me and says "Hey, built your oven for the former!" So I will go home tonight and start putting it together or tomorrow. Then I will take finished pictures. I am so excited lol Edit ok so yeah, sent back till tomorrow. Needed a few things different. I am picky, sorry.

[ahillworks]

Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26340585

I'm posting some more pics very soon. I added wheels on the bottom and cleaned up the wiring from heat etc... Tell me what you think!

Updated:::

Former On Wheels now!

Inside of oven, off of course lol.

Top of oven where wires are all nice and neat.

Controls for oven. LMAO I know, I know, but it works man, truly.

[ANH trooper]

Have you treid heating any plastic yet?

It looks to me that the spacing is too far apart to heat the plastic evenly, and when the centre elements are turned down, what about the edges were they are turned down? They won't heat properly as far as I can tell.

I hope you can prove me wrong mate.

[ahillworks]

Not a problem I like negative feed back. Took that all in the design. Since my space is smaller than most it should burn more even. Also PETG burns at a lower temp so its not needing to be as hot. I can control the out side as well since I placed the center on a switch. Only thing left to do is try it really. I will let you guys know the end result.

Update worse case is I add two more elements. =)

[ANH trooper]

Just trying to be helpful, not negative

What I mean about the elements is that that even though the outer edges (left to right) may be hotter when controlled, the inner will be cooler but so will the edges of the inner section (i.e. the front and back edges will get cooler too while the left and right edges stay warm) due to the elements shape.

I really hope it does work....fingers crossed here

[ahillworks]

Thats what I was thinking. The reason I have the middle turn off is in case the outside is not hot enough, the center can turn off for a moment and then turn back on with no issue. Cool thing is I can control the temp at all times in the left, right, and center. I did some math a while back to be sure the heat would burn even. Since the Plastic will be about 2 inches from the bottom of the oven it gives the heat time to burn even in the oven. Keeping a lower risk on the plastic to burn being so close to an element. Don't take my comment on negative being as a bad thing. I look at things in Negative and Positive. Not so much as good and bad. I like Negative things because those are things that I may not have looked at =).

I did find 4x8 sheets for $14.58 a sheet today. I am all Giddy now.

[jegner]

Looking good!

Those CalRods sure heat up! Can't wait for an initial heat report. Let us know how your tests go!

Jim

[ahillworks]

HAHAHA Yeah see this is why you read more into things. I am going to change the Piping tonight to a 2 stage vac system. Wont be hard just a matter of changing a few pipes and valves around. Will show a new picture when done and then on the first week of Feb will get some PETG to test for you guys to see.

[ahillworks]

Updated 2 Stage Piping on the Former. Much, Much better, let me tell you.








Now all that is left is the Plastic! Man I cant wait!!!!
I do see why they use a two stage system now though. Makes way more sense then a one stage.

[ahillworks]

Ok people, the plastic is here and I got a digital thermometer from Walmart today for 13 bucks. Needed digital do to the top oven. All I did was set the insulated temp wire on the metal mesh under the oven in the center to get the set temp. Did not know how thin .20 thickness is, and I do not see an issue at all with melting the plastic correctly, or having an issue forming it. I will tell you what happens by Sunday. If I don't make the wife mad and just do it tonight lol. Cheers

[ahillworks]

CHANGING THE TABLE PEOPLE. Go with a SINGLE HOLE! Ok, you guys tell me what I need to do on the next pull. Do I need to let the plastic melt a little more? The first run sucked. Believe it or not the outside got way too hot and the middle did not. So I had to change the wires to control the outside heat. Now with this said, the temp gets to 235 degrees no issues. Takes about 8 minutes but it does. So here are some pics. Give me your input please. Oh, I painted the plastic when I finished the pull to show you the detail I did get and the webbing

First Pull






Second Pull








What do you think? I do know the table will be changed - in the process now to a single hole. It should be done this weekend. Bad thing out of plastic lol. Only bought enough for two pulls.

[jegner]

Just my 2 cents.

PETG can be really tricky to pull. My suggestion is to practice on some HIPS to work the kinks out of the machine, and to learn how much the plastic needs to be heated. HIPS or HIS is cheaper and more forgiving.

Having said that, it appears to me the plastic was not hot enough when you tried to form it. Also, take a sheet of plastic and test your platen for vacuum. Just lay the room temp. sheet on the platen and turn the vacuum on. Now, try to slide the sheet. Don't peel a corner up, keep it flat on the platen. If you find it hard to move, then you are getting good vacuum. If it slides around, then you need to revisit the vacuum system. Something is leaking air.

PETG is slow to cool down. And most shop vac's can't pull enough air to keep the thing from loosing detail. At least where the platen meets the mold.

A hi-vac setup can hold the plastic long enough, unless you have a leak.

A multi hole platen should work fine, your results are not that of a flaw with a multi hole design, but rather too cool a plastic, and a vacuum leak during the cooling process.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[ahillworks]

Yes helps a lot. Still going to go with the single hole design. Seems to make a little more sense to me. I kinda figured it did not get hot enough. I dropped it down because the sag was getting over 2 inches. I will also try that vac trick you offered. Will work on it all this weekend I suppose. I'd rather find ways to improve this thing now than later. More input would be cool. I will take it all and start using it. Yeah, I did not get mad last night because I remembered you telling me it would take a few tries to learn it. AND MAN WERE YOU RIGHT. =)~ Talk to yall soon.

[ahillworks]

Is HIS = High Impact Styrene Sheet if so Man I will order more soon. That stuff is cheap as hell lol. Great for practice.