The Fab Shop

I must admit I was skeptical of bringing the thermal former to the new Makerspace. It did not get used much at the old space, however, I am going to eat my words on that one. I had the joy of using it to make some Makerspace Halloween chocolates. It was very easy to use and worked quite well. Thank you so much to Grant for getting it going.

Here is my form and chocolate mold I made. Unfortunately the chocolates went before I had a chance to get a picture, I will take that as a good sign. I may make some more on Wednesday.

A few tips:

• Drill through holes to get more vacuum in tight corners.
• Make the plastic as big as can fit in the vaccume former to ensure the seal does not get broken.
• Set the internal tempreture higher than the outside
• Look under the heater untill you get a good droop in the plastic.
• Bring the platten up and apply vaccum quickly
• Leave the vacuum on untill the plastic cools

I'll also cop to being hesitant about keeping the unit for as long as we have. However, even in my limited use of it so far, its been very exciting, and a very cool tool to demonstrate to visitors of the Space. 14x14" seems like a good size of sheet to use for vacu-forming, 15 might be hitting the toggle clamps on the frame.

And I have to second the immense thanks to Grant!