Cabin formers

Using these drawings on rhino I began making my bottom and top parts of the cabin out of wood and chemi wood.

Here are my two separate formers together to reveal the shape of the cabin. I have drilled holes through the top back part of the top of the cabin this is so that when vacuum formed it will pick up the line I have carved into the back to show guidelines for where to cut to make it a hollow object.

I first began researching vacuum forming as I havnt used this process in ages. I can remember it being very simple to use but I do also remember various flaws, such as webbing and plastic over heating.

I wanted to have a clear plastic to vacuum form with but using clear PETG and Acrylic seemed so much harder to use on the vacuum former than i thought. Petg produced lots of heat bubbles, which made the material look wierd. And even if I left it under for less time the bubbles would disapear but the material wouldnt form all the way round my formers and left lots of webbing. Acrylic was the worst to use as it always produced heat bubbles when heated and always webbed.

I talked to my tutor and he recommended using styrene and working out a new way to produce windows. Styrene definitely vacuum formed the best. I double vacuum formed 1mm styrene on the each former to make it a little bit stronger and rigid.