Those of you who follow my projects know that I bough myself an industrial-sized Vacuum Forming machine about a year and a half ago: The Obligatory "Post Your Recent Purchases" Thread
I bought this explicitly to attempt to create reproduction part for my Sega Flash Beats Cabinet: Sega Flash Beats Restoration
I've mused in various threads about using this machine for other projects such as reproducing the official Capcom CPS1 cases, Shock Boxes for PGM carts, and Pinball Ramps and other stuff. What else can this be used for? well Vacuum forming is actually a really common process for large plastic parts or small plastic parts with low production quantities. As such it's used a lot in arcades. nearly every plastic parts on that Sega Flash Beats Machine is Vacuum Formed. A lot of the large plastic parts on Racing and other simulation cabs are vacuum formed (such as seat-backs, dash boards, etc), pinball rams, and large plastic toppers (like the one on Alien Syndrome) etc.
Generally if the plastic part is like a large "shell" with one large open size and no internal structure (ie: no screw posts and no "fins"), it's most likely vacuum formed. So there are a lot of potential uses for one of these machines, particularly a large one like mine. Despite the fact that I own this machine and have for over a year and a half none of this has come to fruition, for a number of reasons.
This topic came up again recently and I thought I'd start a dedicated thread to just keep track of what needs to happen for this stuff to move forward.
Problem #1: this machines needs to 240V AC and my garage isn't wired for it, due to the way things are laid out in my current garage I wouldn't be able to use the machine during the winter months and last Fall we were considering moving in the Spring so it didn't make sense to hire an electrician to upgrade the power in the garage only to have to have it done again at the new place... well COVID threw a wrench in those plans and the move got put off at least another year at this point, and my garage is still packed away like winter so yeah...
Problem #2: I need to install additional heat elements in the header, and reconfigure the machine. currently it's setup for only using part of the vacuum bed and while this will be fine for smaller items it's not so for the Flash Beats control panel. This really hasn't been a priority since without power I can't use the machine and even before I reconfigure it it'd probably be best to use it in it's current configuration on smaller parts to learn the ropes before I start modifying it and wasting huge expensive sheets of plastic to learn how to use it.
Problem #3: Sourcing material. I've found companies that sell clear, smooth, PETG and I've found companies that sell textured black, ABS but I've not found anyone that sells anything else. For Flash beats I need a very specific color of translucent blue/purple PETG and for the CPS1 cases I need gray (not sure what material the originals are but I don't think it matters much), and pinball ramps are all sorts of different colors.
These materials must be out there somewhere, I'm using the same process of the original manufacturer so where are the original manufacturers sourcing their materials?
Problem #4: Trimming the parts. Even after I get the machine working, find the material, make my molds, and use it, I'm left with a large sheet of plastic with perfectly shaped bump in it. the part needs to be trimmed out and in the case of something like the CPS1 cases additional mounting and vent holes need to be trimmed out. it's unclear how this is done in the original manufacturing process but something like a Dremmel or router should be used with some kind of jig... I'm still not sure on the best process for this though. Doing this purely by hand seems like it'd be a nightmare if I want consistent and high quality cuts the "skill" needs to be taken out of the process.
Why make this thread
I don't have any one single place where I've laid out all of the Vacuum forming stuff and I do get asked about it on occasion so now it's all in one place and I can keep this thread updated and reference people here going forward.
Also, maybe someone in the community can offer some insights into resolving problems #3 and #4? Obviously problems #1 and 2 are ones that only I can solve myself but I haven't put much effort into them until 3 and 4 are resolved.
So if you know where I can get material other than plain clear and textured black, or have any insights on how to construct a cutting jig or what tools to use, or simply have some ideas for vacuum formed parts that would benefit the community please post!
I bought this explicitly to attempt to create reproduction part for my Sega Flash Beats Cabinet: Sega Flash Beats Restoration
I've mused in various threads about using this machine for other projects such as reproducing the official Capcom CPS1 cases, Shock Boxes for PGM carts, and Pinball Ramps and other stuff. What else can this be used for? well Vacuum forming is actually a really common process for large plastic parts or small plastic parts with low production quantities. As such it's used a lot in arcades. nearly every plastic parts on that Sega Flash Beats Machine is Vacuum Formed. A lot of the large plastic parts on Racing and other simulation cabs are vacuum formed (such as seat-backs, dash boards, etc), pinball rams, and large plastic toppers (like the one on Alien Syndrome) etc.
Generally if the plastic part is like a large "shell" with one large open size and no internal structure (ie: no screw posts and no "fins"), it's most likely vacuum formed. So there are a lot of potential uses for one of these machines, particularly a large one like mine. Despite the fact that I own this machine and have for over a year and a half none of this has come to fruition, for a number of reasons.
This topic came up again recently and I thought I'd start a dedicated thread to just keep track of what needs to happen for this stuff to move forward.
Problem #1: this machines needs to 240V AC and my garage isn't wired for it, due to the way things are laid out in my current garage I wouldn't be able to use the machine during the winter months and last Fall we were considering moving in the Spring so it didn't make sense to hire an electrician to upgrade the power in the garage only to have to have it done again at the new place... well COVID threw a wrench in those plans and the move got put off at least another year at this point, and my garage is still packed away like winter so yeah...
Problem #2: I need to install additional heat elements in the header, and reconfigure the machine. currently it's setup for only using part of the vacuum bed and while this will be fine for smaller items it's not so for the Flash Beats control panel. This really hasn't been a priority since without power I can't use the machine and even before I reconfigure it it'd probably be best to use it in it's current configuration on smaller parts to learn the ropes before I start modifying it and wasting huge expensive sheets of plastic to learn how to use it.
Problem #3: Sourcing material. I've found companies that sell clear, smooth, PETG and I've found companies that sell textured black, ABS but I've not found anyone that sells anything else. For Flash beats I need a very specific color of translucent blue/purple PETG and for the CPS1 cases I need gray (not sure what material the originals are but I don't think it matters much), and pinball ramps are all sorts of different colors.
These materials must be out there somewhere, I'm using the same process of the original manufacturer so where are the original manufacturers sourcing their materials?
Problem #4: Trimming the parts. Even after I get the machine working, find the material, make my molds, and use it, I'm left with a large sheet of plastic with perfectly shaped bump in it. the part needs to be trimmed out and in the case of something like the CPS1 cases additional mounting and vent holes need to be trimmed out. it's unclear how this is done in the original manufacturing process but something like a Dremmel or router should be used with some kind of jig... I'm still not sure on the best process for this though. Doing this purely by hand seems like it'd be a nightmare if I want consistent and high quality cuts the "skill" needs to be taken out of the process.
Why make this thread
I don't have any one single place where I've laid out all of the Vacuum forming stuff and I do get asked about it on occasion so now it's all in one place and I can keep this thread updated and reference people here going forward.
Also, maybe someone in the community can offer some insights into resolving problems #3 and #4? Obviously problems #1 and 2 are ones that only I can solve myself but I haven't put much effort into them until 3 and 4 are resolved.
So if you know where I can get material other than plain clear and textured black, or have any insights on how to construct a cutting jig or what tools to use, or simply have some ideas for vacuum formed parts that would benefit the community please post!
