My Vacu-form History

While this post should be on the Odd'l Rockets Blogsite, I wanted to share it here.

I owned a Mattel Vacu-form "toy" when I very young and got great results with it.  With the Vacu-form it took a split second to flip the sheet over from the heater to the vacuum table.
To see the original Mattel commercial CLICK HERE

On the right side is the heating element. Imagine giving a five year old their very own hot plate! I wonder how many house fires were started with these and later, the even more dangerous Thingmaker toys.
On the left side the silver frame has been flipped onto the vacuum plate. The suction was made with repeated presses on a hand pump.

You can imagine my frustration years later with "supposedly" a better set-up.

I bought a small vacu-form box on Ebay. It was a well constructed oak box with a metal frame to hold the sheet plastic. My first (five or so) attempts were frustrating. The plastic sheet is locked in the aluminum frame and heated in the kitchen oven.
The wood box is connected to a shop vac. When the heated plastic sags you turn on the vac and quickly transfer the plastic onto the top of the box. The vacuum should suck the plastic around the master making a detailed, formed skin.

The problem (for me, anyway) was getting the heated plastic frame to the vac-box before the sheet cooled down. More to come . . .