Vacuum forming coil housings

[dfbowers]

Today's project

8" coil for TGSL.

[nakky]

Hi dfbowers,is this ABS plastic, .060" thickness from Micro ???.
Nice work.

Grt Nakky.

[dfbowers]

Yea, here is the link.. Problem is it only comes in 11 X 14" sheets.. It's actually styrene.
http://www.micromark.com/SearchResul...Phrase=styrene

Seems like .060" seems to be a popular thickness to work with for coils.

Don

[nakky]

Thanks again.

Grt Nakky

[ik5pwr]

dfbowers , nice work , I will start a next days for a wood box assembly , I bought yesterday a Polypropilene 1 mm it's thick enough? so a wood model how thick you make ? I have a 15 mm . Thanks a for your reply

regards Alex


PS Sorry for my bad English ,I 'm from Italy..

[dfbowers]

Luciano,

Do not worry. Your English is fine. For a form I used 5/8 inch pine, about 15 mm ?? It is soft and easy to cut. I just used a jigsaw and a router to smooth the edges.

For the box, just make sure that it is big enough, so you do not have to make more than one! Construction is not important.

A few things I have learned after a failure or two.. It is beneficial to have some space between the box and the form in order to get the correct shape near the bottom. I just added .25 inch spacers. Use gloves to help the vacuum pull down on corners.

Have some sort of a guide to help direct the frame onto the board. You cannot reposition if you miss!!

.060 inch or .062 inch is what all my store bought coils are made from.. Seems to be about the right thickness to start with.

Good luck!
Don

[ik5pwr]

Ok Don , I'm Alex not Luciano ;-) , so this evening I cut a square wood of 15 mm impress with a 26 cm loop pattern , I will cut with a router and manual saw
tomorrow ,I will make a box , thanks for your hints , I will post a few photos.

Alex

[dfbowers]

OOPs! Sorry Alex.. Posts seem to run together sometimes..

Don

[Jan]

Excelent work!
How do you make bracket?

[luciano furtado]

Luciano,

Do not worry. Your English is fine. For a form I used 5/8 inch pine, about 15 mm ?? It is soft and easy to cut. I just used a jigsaw and a router to smooth the edges.

For the box, just make sure that it is big enough, so you do not have to make more than one! Construction is not important.

A few things I have learned after a failure or two.. It is beneficial to have some space between the box and the form in order to get the correct shape near the bottom. I just added .25 inch spacers. Use gloves to help the vacuum pull down on corners.

Have some sort of a guide to help direct the frame onto the board. You cannot reposition if you miss!!

.060 inch or .062 inch is what all my store bought coils are made from.. Seems to be about the right thickness to start with.

Good luck!
Don

very interesting explanation of his friend, I liked the explanation of the coil was show ...
Congratulations ...
thank you very much

[dfbowers]

Jan,

I made the bracket out of 1/8" hardwood, glued together in 3 pieces. I could not get it out of the shell after forming, so I just left it in there! It work just fine that way, with no false signals in use but I wanted to fill with epoxy. I will try making a few more shells this week.

Don

[luciano furtado]

I wonder if anyone knows what the best stuff to make and blidagem coil below 100Khz for less effect of land of aluminum or copper??
thank you very much

[Tilladude]

DB,

You might also try United States Plastic Corp WWW.usplastic.com they just about anything plastic you could think of.

Dennis

[Cyclonite]

Originally posted in the Tesoro Golden Sabre Metal Detector Thread, this eBook will fit this threads on-topic discussions about the subject of Vacuum Forming Coil Housings.

Secrets of Building a Plastic Vacuum Forming Machine - By Vincent R. Gingery (1999)



* Author: Vincent R. Gingery
* Publisher: D.J. Gingery
* Number Of Pages: 106
* Publication Date: 1999-07
* ISBN / ASIN: 1878087223
* EAN: 9781878087225
* Binding: Paperback
* Manufacturer: D.J. Gingery
* Format: PDF (OCRed)
* Size: 4.13 MB

Description by Vince Gingery:

Geez... you should see the samples of vacuum forming Vince sent me! I can show you a photo but until you hold the formed sheet in your hand you don't know how powerful this thing is. It's professional quality. And you can build it for far less than you can buy a machine. And since Vince will reveal his experiences, you should be able to adapt the design and scale it up or down. The best way to describe the machine is to let Vince do the talking:



"The machine is built almost entirely of angle iron and flat bar. Construction is simple, with some welding being required. Being built on wheels makes the machine easy to move from place to place. It has a unique clamp frame that works very well and the adjustable work surface (platen) is a real asset. The machine has a 12" x 15" forming area, and I have formed ABS plastic up to 3/16" thick with it. I believe the machine would form 1/4" as well. Of course, thicker plastic takes longer to reach forming temperature.

The machine operates on a 20 amp 120 volt circuit using a 1500 watt, 120 volt heating element. Temperature is controlled by an infinite range switch mounted in the control panel. Everything required to build the machine is easy to find except for the 120 volt heating element. It's an oven replacement element, and ... will sell for around $30.00 plus shipping...



The vacuum for the machine can be supplied by either an air venturi pump or electric vacuum pump in conjunction with two storage tanks. I am mentioning the air venturi pump as one alternative because it's so cheap. Only $12.99 through Harbor Freight and it pulls 4.2 cfm per minute taking about 4 minutes to pull a 25 kg vacuum on my two 11 gallon tanks. Not too shabby for the price. In order to use it though, you need to have an air compressor capable of maintaining 90 psi.. The other and better alternative is an electric vacuum pump. The electric pump I have pulls 6 cfm taking about 2 minutes to pull a 25 kg vacuum. Although twice as fast, the electric pump costs close to $300.00."

You oughta have a copy of this... for your reference library if nothing else!

Note by @Cyclonite:

You can also use an old Refrigerator Motor as Vacuum Pump, connected to a Buffer Cylinder for fast release of Vacuum Pressure. These Refrigerator Motor Pumps work slow, so you will have to suck a Buffer Cylinder vacuum (empty CO2 Fire Extinguisher etc.) for use with large cavity suction products. The faster you can suck a vacuum, the less heat you will have to expose your plastic forming material to.

Download (RARed 3.80 MB):

Secrets of Building a Plastic Vacuum Forming Machine - By Vincent R. Gingery (David J. Gingery Publishing LLC - 1999) 56s (d).pdf

iFile.it Download Link:
http://ifile.it/td75bo4

or (optional)

MegaUpload Download Link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JP2EVEO7

No Password Required !

Enjoy !

Robert

Robert

[Tilladude]

Many mucho thanks robert, this will be very useful in the extreme.

Dennis