Not much of a thing, really, just time to put the darn thing into production…
So, I have been wanting to make a vacuum forming thing for quite some time. I had already gathered a lot of the ancillary stuff, including 1mm and 2mm sheets of 8"×10" PETg plastic and a thrift store toaster oven. My original intent was to make a big table for forming stuff, and use an old oven for heat, and maybe I’ll still do that someday but in the meantime, this small unit will probably do 99% of what I want. Well, at least 90%.
So the sides are 12mm birch plywood with rabbet joints at the corners and top. The top and bottom are 5.5mm birch plywood. All joints are just PVA glued and clamped. The top is not yet glued in, because I have not decided if it needs a brace inside. I am leaning towards yes there. I’ll 3D print that. There is a hole in the side suited to fit my shop vac hose. I may want to 3D print a fitting for it, but hope I don’t need to.
The holes in the top are 3.5mm (just large enough to be a “hole” in Estlcam, and not a “drill” with the 1/8" mill) and spaced on a grid that I hope will work out to let the vacuum pull the air out from under the plastic. The grid didn’t have to be CNC milled, and if I need more, I can just drill.
Anyway, nothing fancy, but hopefully functional.