vacuum forming question

Never done vac forming before and I had a question. If the item I want to use as a mold is plastic, would it melt or stick when the heated plastic touches it? Is there any kind of chemical suck as cooking spray or vaseline that would keep it from sticking. I'm wanting to use my Boba gaunts as a mold for another set of gaunts that I can modify into a set of Jango gaunts.

Wait for it......

A re-caster!! Nooooooo

Lol. Good enough woody? or do you want the page long lecture?

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I would actually like a straight answer instead of all the smart alec comments. I have never done vac forming and thought someone on here MIGHT have done this before and would be able to help me. I specialize in metal. The gaunts I have would be decent for a mold so that I could go from there and make what ever mods I want. Also I don't want a metal cod piece. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want a piece of sheet metal by my groin.

You could probably use a product called spray mold release... but honestly the way plastics work I think any type of oily spray releaser would work. you just saturate it like you would a cooking pan.

Thank you, that actually helps a bunch. I didn't want to have to buy a new set every time I built a kit. This way I can make a plaster mold and build from there.

Originally Posted by wthrgssr75

I would actually like a straight answer instead of all the smart alec comments.

Well, since you asked so nicely

The reason people are reacting the way they are is that what you are talking about is generally called recasting. If you get a set of gauntlets from someone else and make copies, even just for your own use, that will effectively get you tarred and feathered in every prop making community I'm aware of.

This assumption comes from the scenario you describe: You said you have plastic Boba gauntlets to use. If you made them yourself, you would already know how to work with plastic, or could just do another pull off of your molds.

So, the logical deduction there is that you got them from someone else, thus inferring that you are copying something you did not make.

Experienced prop makers aren't likely to provide much assistance if they think you are going to essentially be stealing the work of another prop maker.

You may not want to buy another set for every project, but that doesn't mean it's OK to take the hard work someone else put in on sculpting those originals and reproduce it without permission.

What I need is the basic body of both gaunts. No whip cord box, no flame thrower box, no lowers. Just the basic upper bodies where the rocket sits for the left and the darts go on the right. I'm not taking someone elses work and claiming it for myself. When I ask a simple question and start getting grief over it, it's expected to go on the deffensive. Since people claim to be experienced with plastic work, I thought they might be nice enough to offer tips. Wouldn't using blueprints that someone drafted be considered stealing their design? Food for thought.

Wizard of flight makes his templates public. He designed them and offers them for free. Nothing wrong with it when the maker says you can have them. I made a helmet from these templates. They are simple to use and noone will give you grief, ever, about it. He has templates for gaunts, jetpacks, helmets, pretty much everything for a fett/jango.

There are plenty of people here who ARE experienced in plastic work, but like brian said, experienced prop makers aren't likely to provide much assistance if they think you are going to essentially be stealing the work of another prop maker.

On this site, most of us do the work ourselves, or just buy from the propmakers that do the work.

The WOF templates are super easy to use and you can get a great base with very little time/money spent. They should give you what you need to do what your looking to do.

Are they just glued together? Or do you need a mold of some kind to bend them accurately? Like I said, metal is something that I have worked for years, plastic (sintra) I've never worked with. I'm being accused of being a thief just for asking a question. What's the difference in taking a partial mold from something you bought and buying the item from someone else whole made a mold of the original?

Like stated above GENERALLY speaking what your asking is recasting someone elses work. If you tooled everything with wood it would be YOUR work. But taking someones gaunts they molded making a cast of it is recasting. By buying the part you didnt receive the right to reproduce it...just like copying a DVD is illegal. You bought the right to use that gauntlet and resell it to someone else if you choose but not to copy it and sell it or even copy it and use it yourself for a base.

plastic is just like metal man it will behave in all the same was. you can bend,break,weld,metal it. do a search for WOF templates and download the gaunts then look at the way he's broken them down into many different sections. I made my Jetpack from them. Just listen to people telling you about the recasting stuff. If you get a rep for having the intention to recast even if you just want to use it yourself vendors wont want to sell to you.

plus there are great differences in Boba and Jango gaunts even though they appear to look the same.

Originally Posted by wthrgssr75

What I need is the basic body of both gaunts. No whip cord box, no flame thrower box, no lowers. Just the basic upper bodies where the rocket sits for the left and the darts go on the right. I'm not taking someone elses work and claiming it for myself.

Unfortunately that's exactly what you are doing. It's seriously, seriously frowned upon to make molds off of something another person did without the original artist's permission.

Even if the original is a found item, it's still thought of as wrong to recast it.

So, even if you are only copying the shells of whatever kit you have, that's still not a good thing.

Wouldn't using blueprints that someone drafted be considered stealing their design? Food for thought.

Not if the person posts them publicly and offers them up for that purpose.

People bust butt to make things for the community, so there is an understanding that the community will respect the creator's wishes.

While there is nothing legally that can be done to you if you do choose to copy what you have, you'll find that prop makers won't sell you anything because they will be afraid of what you might do. Many makers maintain blacklists of people they won't deal with. Once you get on one, you don't really get back off.

So really, it's up to you how you want to handle it.

Dude with the original question, PM me.

I know several prop makers here in Orlando at Universal that can help you out with your questions. I can understand the replies that others are giving you if you were going out and reselling someones work but what you are doing does not seem in the slightest questionable at least not to me.

I think you could use talc to keep the plastic from sticking together.