Day 15 - Vacuum Forming Part 2

So I finished my vacuum forming rig (less than $50 total for parts!). Since I didn't have any armor pieces ready to use as a mold, I used whatever was handy that had plenty of detail to test out. This happened to be my vise grips. On the first try, I ended up overheating the plastic (I used one of those cheap plastic "For Sale" signs), and it tore while getting vacuum formed.



A few tries later with various objects, I fell back on the vise grips again and ended up with the following results by cutting one of those cheap, flimsy 3-ring binders. This shows some promise, but I still need to perfect the combination of which type of plastic, how thick, what temperature to heat it up to, and for how long. In the meantime, I'll work on sculpting the molds with Sculpey clay.