Type Material/Thickness for vac. pulls

Tim Allen

Well-Known Hunter
Finished my table and want to do some Vac pulls of armor and a mask. What would be the best type material and thickness? Easiest to find and cheapest. Dont really care about quality at this point just want to give it a test run and see how it pulls.
 
Styrene sheet is the usual weopon of choice for vacuum forming. you can get various sizes and thicknesses at www.usplastic.com if you order any thing big , have them cut it down to size so you dont pay an arm and a leg for shipping. I was ordering a 4'x8' sheet of ABS plastic and it was only around 40 bucks, but then when they gave me a shipping quote of $195 I cancelled my order and found out later on that they can cut it down.
 
wow how about using other sources of plastic? I have heard of plastic being boiled such as trash cans. is that cheaper? how about white bucket abs plastic?
alternatively I had the exact same thing happen as zombierepellent.
 
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which ever you prefer. a lot of people use around .090 thichness which is about the thickness of 2 credit cards. other things like jason masks and what not about 1/8" I'm too lazy to convert into a decimal tho
 
I get my plastic locally at a sign shop. Look in the yellow pages for either sign shops or plastics places and they may have styrene,ABS or whatever. If not they should be able to order it for you so you don't have to pay big shipping prices. I usually use .060,.080 and sometimes .090 for sturdy not so detailed pieces. If you have something small and detailed you can go to like .040.
 
go practice with "for sale" signs... they are styrene and usually cheap!

For armor , I use .100 styrene on average.. If you need something with lots of details.. then drop down to a .080 thickness

.060 will come out beautiful, but will be thin...

It all depends on he application for the final product..
 
Styrene is fun and easy to use. I had a huge piece from a damaged shower surround that I bought off of a hardware store a few years ago. Here's how it went:

newmask3.gif
 
Whats up Tim.

I'm using .90 styrene (High Impact) from GEPolymershapes in Mira Mesa and its pulling well on a 4.5HP vac. A 8'x4' ran about 25.00-30.00, and they will cut it down to (4) 4'x2's for free. I am curious to try .60 on some pieces, but as others have said, it could get quite thin.
 
You could always try .60 and back it with fiberglass. Of course, I've never vacformed or worked with fiberglass before, so I'm not the best person to take advice from. :lol:
 
lol, is it really that hard for a beginner, I'm working on a secret film project, and I need to make a few things of armor and helmets for it.
 
Im probable going to try 60. becauses its alot cheaper on USplatics. I need it in sheets of 22" by 22". Can they cut it down to that size when i order?
 
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