The problem with that though, is I'm limited to what I can fit in my oven and even if I can, it's preferable not to have your food taste like plastic. Through some Google-fu I found tk560.com. He set up a table top vacuum former and heavily documented his build process here.
My build process isn't nearly as in-depth but some of the pictures I took are pretty.
The machine in all its glory:
Want to know what happens when you underestimate the power of homemade circuitry? Keep reading, I was in for a jolt!
On the left side there's a frame I clamp the plastic into and it swings over onto the heater. The heater was its own endeavor and the only part of the process that really gave me issues.
Gotta work with the lights off. Learned my lesson, don't want to be blowing fuses!
Getting the heater set up could have been easier, admittedly. I could have bought a space heater or a kit with it already assembled or even an old, busted toaster oven, but I didn't, so here I am.
First problem: I fired up the oven one small section of wire lit up like the filament of a lightbulb, no joke. Turned it off right away but the damage was done, the section melted flat and my coil of nichrome wire was flat, brown, and crispy like bacon. So I replaced that segment with a new piece and tried again.
Second problem: a spark. Not just a little "ffft" but a "POW!" Bright big flash, stumbling backwards, tripping over tools, and slamming the switch off all while blinded by my creation. Oops. Realized the frame touch the terminal posts in some spots and made a significant short. Cut those down and tried again.
Third problem: Got the segment from terminal A to B and D to E lit, but not BC or CD. Crap. I had my dad look the thing over with my grandfather's multimeter before we tore it apart and started the wiring from scratch again. Measure from here to here, no that works, here to here, that works too. "Okay, if this works then the problem has to be there" and then that worked too. Without further dismantling the thing we found the connections at Terminal C were a little loose so current wasn't flowing through it. Fixed that so now it runs, but it's not glowing like before.
Fourth, fifth, and sixth problems were all variations on there being too much ventilation for the heat to escape through. I taped over the gaps in the walls of the oven, put a lid on the whole thing, and totally changed out the AB section instead of just the burnt out piece from before.
And then I got this:
I finally, finally got it to work. A couple trials runs later,
And I got it. I hastily trimmed out the pieces, took a blurry picture and it was done.
Now all that's left is to build the thing...
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