ericl

starter

06/02/2019 at 21:07

Not exactly sure if it is the same as thermoforming or not, but vacuum forming is very easy to do (assuming we can produce thin enough sheets of plastic), so that may be good to pursue.

ericl

starter

06/02/2019 at 21:10

Another Idea of mine was to take the thicker sheets produced by the sheet press, and let them “simmer” on a large griddle to alow them to heat treat (for more strength + transparency) and for the sheet to be thinner.

markbertbach

helper

18/02/2019 at 09:45

@ericl

Good ideas, although I’m a bit sceptical towards both.

fot thermo forming I think you need a very consistant output and thus very pure input material without any pollutions.

for simmering I worry about warpage and thickness deviations.

but for both, only 1 way to find out! 😁

I you try so, let me know, otherwise, maybe @v-varella would like to try

rikmakes

starter

26/02/2019 at 17:27

Hi Mark,

Lovin the sheetpress you made!

This got me wondering if there is a list available to reproduce the SheetPress ?

For instance These;

jasonknight

helper

02/05/2019 at 19:31

Hey everyone! Six months in and we have our first working prototype of the sheet pressing system up and running! Below is a presentation which highlights the journey so far and a video of the process so you guys can give us some feedback!

congratulations, that looks like a promising setup, for around 2-4k; next station would be then blow molding though 🙂

adzie23

starter

05/05/2019 at 18:23

Well done guys! I can’t wait to start making sheets, going to be nice to see what comes with v4!

s2019

warrior

30/05/2019 at 18:48

@markbertbach I just came across your thesis work in the other thread http://onearmy.world/community/forums/topic/plastic-plate-press-semi-diy-semi-professional/ . Maybe you should add it to your index, perhaps as background information. It really is a valuable resource and should be visible.

Thanks for the great work

martink

starter

11/06/2019 at 17:18

Nicely done,

This could be a really valuable part of the Precious plastic toolkit. It opens lots of doors.

Is there a development timeline somewhere for this / V4 in general? Or an informal estimate on when this might be available and the cost to make it.

Cheers,
Martin

@martink, a short look at the oven drawings; i’d say 2 skilled metal workers can do it in 10 – 20 days, assuming CNC or at least guided hand plasma cutter or metal brake machine, in top of the normal tools, 20-30 sqm space;  less than that, eg: alone & not all tools : 1-2 months. transport in EU easily in thousands (2*2*2m). if you would build this your self, possibly 2000 – 4000 Euro. that’s just the oven and the estimate is a for 1:1 copy. there are quite some shortcuts you can do but I guess most the parts have to be there or at least done like that. Evtl. this goes much cheaper in bulk from a laser service …

jasonknight

helper

18/12/2019 at 20:08

Hey everyone for further questions about the V4 development of the Sheetpress, you can post below here (best option so everyone can benefit from our discussion), inbox me here or reach us on discord https://discordapp.com/invite/AKuxkpx