Vacuum molder

[jwscab]

you don't need to run it at any positive pressure. it will be negative pressure I'm guessing the thing to do is to put the vaccum pump on the tank, and set up some valving so you can draw a vacuum down in the tank, then when the lexan is at the right temp and you flip it to the mold side, you open the vacuum valve to the table and allow the lexan to pull down.

I'd make sure to make the piping to the table pretty large diameter, and use quarter turn ball valves.

[Frogwagon]

have 2.5 inch steel pipe. not sure how im goin to setup the tank yet, ill figure it out some day lol

[Jay Dub]

That is pretty much it. We drew a vacuum on the tank (this took a while), then closed a valve to the pump. When we were ready to pull a mold, we would open a separate, larger (2" maybe) pipe that went to the molding chamber. Do your tests first with Styrene, as it is cheap and will get you familiar with your setup, and process. Once you have it dialed in, then you can move to lexan and deal with its problems (it more difficult to form than styrene). -Jeff

[Frogwagon]

i still need to figure out the pipping for the tank, not sure yet on how to do it.

[drbelleville]

Here from back in the day

[Frogwagon]

I would like to have that body lol