Ro3bert

Welcome Tommy

Welcome Spencer from the Nutmeg state.

Clay

Perry.

Me too.

84 going on 17. Don't ask. My avatar is pretty much like me except I don't have that long hair (would except for the wife).

Welcome Bill. Pull up your work table and sit a'spell.

Peter, I never thought of CFM and you are right a vacuum pump does not have much. However we have a Kirby vacuum cleaner which I suspect will have sufficient CFM to to the job. Too, there is the problem of heating the plastic, what kind of heating thingy should be used. I suspect I should go to YouTube to check out the making of vacuum molding implements. I will not be doing any vacuum molding in the near future but it never hurts to have your ducks in a row before you start. Robert

Anyone from Henderson, NV is doubly welcome.

X2

I'm going to have to do something like that, I have three cardboard boxes that have one to two layers of paint bottles and like Nick said I have to go through so many before I find the one I want, and that is even though about half of them have colored tops. I just counted them and there are more than 60 bottles and about 12 rattle cans. My work area is a disaster, I'm not the most organized person in the world. If anyone came up to see it they'd want to know how I ever find anything in the mess. That is if they had the guts to ask in the first place. Robert

Yeah, any Porsche sports car. I had a 356A at one time. Now I hate anyone that drives a Porsche (because I don't have one).

I tried them both out. The ring light seems to do nicely, no shadows or reflections. The macro lens looks like it will do well however I can't use them together as only one at a time can be screwed onto the lens and Neewer (the macro lens compnay) doesn't make adaptors that will allow the ring light to go onto the macro lens. Bummer. As soon as I can I'll post images made with the macro lens. There is much to learn here, I want to stop down to f16 or smaller but that means the exposure time is elongated. So far that has put the kabash on the image taking. However, tomorrow (May 2) I should be getting a new tripod so that should allow long exposures. Robert

Welcome Bill.

Recieved a ring light for my camera for macro photos of models and sub-assemblies. Also got a wide angle/macro lens for the same. Unfortunately there are some problems that will complicate picture taking but I won't go into that now. Wednesday I will be getting a package of filters for our vacuum cleaner and a new tripod for my camera (another situation I won't go into now). Robert

Welcome Hermann.

Mike. You will find so much help and information here. Robert

You may not see it but I've created a monster I cannot control, every time I make a change in the build sequence something down line reaches out and bites me. It's my own fault for not planning ahead or planning at all. A for instance, the kit has a metal bar for the rear axle that means the rear end is fixed rather than articulated. I wanted to make the wheels rotate independantly so decided to add a differential with U jointed axles. Therein lies the problem since the brake rotors are supposed to be glued to the rear end with the metal axle going through them. Too, the metal axle meant the rear end could not be made to move up and down. So it goes on, one minor change begets more and larger changes/problems down the line. The only solution is to stop making changes before considering the consequences. So the only solution is to plan ahead and that means planning for the whole build even if it means making drawings and deciding exactly what changes are wanted and doable. That means I am going to stop any further building then start from the beginning of the instructions, decide what changes I want and incorporate into the build. I've never done that before as I just followed the instructions making only minor changes in color or very minor changes in shape, things that wouldn't have any effect on other parts. So I won't be posting for a while, not until I have a complete plan written out with the what's and how to's including materials needed and all that jazz and restart building to the plan. Caio for now, Robert

So, Bill a household vacuum cleaner has enough power to evacuate a small former? I thought it would take a vacuum pump. Maybe I've kept that item for no reason, oh, well I will keep your idea on the back burner for a while. Not sure what that perfboard is for. I can visualize a frame to hold the positive form and another above it to hold the piece to be formed. I guess an image of hand drawing would help me visualize what it would look like when finished. I do have an idea but have never attempted a device like that. If I do make one and it is successful I'll post a how to thread. Robert

I have found a few other posts on this forum with the same indication. Some have images, in fact, most but some that rely on Photobucket do not show up except for the image I posted above. It's a shame not to be able to see what people want to present. Frankly I don't think it is the posters fault and certainly don't understand why something should be "temporarily disabled" especially as I have gone back to posts that still have images that are "disabled". Robert

A warm welcome to you David.

Unfortunately the images on that site don't show up. Here is what I see: So I don't know how that person did it. I think I will try You Tube, they must have tutorials on vacuum formers. Robert

Thanks all, I guess I'll try sanding first. The thought of using it as a mold is a little daunting but I have a vacuum pump from an old auto air condition station that I have always thought of using for vacuum forming but have never tried. Making a vacuum forming machine would be a bit of a job but since I've kept it all these years I might as well get going. Besides it would certainly do my modeling skills a world of good. Wish I'd known what Bill said about the possibility of the brake fluid attacking the plastic. Learn something new every day. Robert

Sounds interesting Skip, I'll put that one in the pot for consideration.

Years ago I got a 1/16 scale Monagram F 40 Ferrari, did some work on it including priming the rear (clear) window. I couldn't find what color it was supposed to be and assumed it was to be painted along with the rest of the model. Recently I got to thinking about whether it was supposed to be painted and decided it shouldn't have. I put into a pot of brake fluid I'd used to strip something else black and primed. Oh, boy what a mistake and disaster. The window was stripped of the primer, or at least softened so I could brush it off under the faucet. Now for the problem, it seems to have been dyed gray. I tried to get it clear by sanding and later by dipping into alcohol but nothing seems to have worked. Sorry the images are so large, should have made them smaller to start with. I know I should have provide fresh brake fluid but I didn't (didn't really think about it being dirty) so now I have a gray window. Is there any way to de-dye it? or do I have to sand blast it? It is very thick so if I have to I can sand it until the color is gone. I suppose I could just put them back into clean brake fluid but since both sides are that gray color I'm not sure it would help. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't have that small airbrush sand blasting kit and can't afford it just now. Robert