https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryfPc7VGEWoFAILUREI watched this vid a couple of times and learned some very important lessons:
1) If you mount your camera in a clamp don't cover the mic with the clamp. Turn up volume.
2) Your mold must be very strong. Vacuum is powerful.
3) You MUST leave the vacuum ON until the plastic has cooled, otherwise there is bounce back.
4) The home made vacuum former heating elements taken from a toaster oven are good enough for this kind of project.
5) Heating elements are good enough for 1/16" ABS but may be a bit weak for the 1/8" ABS. Time will tell.
6) It does not take very long for the plastic to get to temperature. Maybe 5 minutes ??
7) I feel this 1/16" ABS is more than strong enough for a roof top storage lid.
8)
Safety: Wear leather gloves and a hat. Your head is very close to the heating element hood when you grab the handles. I did many dry runs and it was very apparent that all brain cells must function. The heating element connections are also exposed on the outside of the hood. You can't tape them up because of the heat or even protect them well due to the heat. Also it appears the metal handles don't heat up enough in 5 minutes to be any issue if you are wearing leather gloves. I was going to make slip on wooden handles but that's not necessary.
I don't consider this failure a real obstacle to this project.
I was trying to make a roof top storage lid bottom half but the mold was weak and it got crushed by the vacuum. As long as I make the next mold out of a solid piece of wood this project will be successful. I'm just not sure if this ABS would be feasible on a machine that is run in a desert environment. Would the ABS take the sun's heat ?? Not sure.
Once I have made one of these units I may make a kleem air box lid.
Then I'll experiment with the 1/8" ABS.
CO