Greasy Gary's Highboy

[jffj]

My entry in the Mild-Wild contest.
I came up with this, based on the whole Bill Campbell/WeirdOhs story, and hope to build this, and maybe another, in the WeirdOhs style- including the big difference between the box art and completed model.

Still unsure if it will be all plastic, or with wood, or paper mache.

Currently, just working out the proportions, width, etc, and assembly of parts design, using poster board, and Photoshop to mock it up.

John

[Starryeyes]

I love it !

[TooOld]

This is fun to watch ! Very cool !

[plastimatic]

Agreed, this should be fun!!

Hmm, introducing a new line of cars. Who woulda thunk?

[dogfish7]

Pretty high tech, but effective.

[jffj]

Apr 12, 2018 10:09:54 GMT -5 dogfish7 said:

Pretty high tech, but effective.

😊 Thanks Bruce.... Actually, I had hoped to keep it as low tech as possible- my trying to make a master, (or masters, parts), and then heat sheet styrene over a stove burner and (holding with pliers) just pull the soft plastic down over the master, the wooden buck. I have done that before, making valve covers and a couple scoops, with good results.

However, I made one of the front tires out of balsa wood and when I tried my old draping method.... I found out that I needed another pair of hands, or to build a frame to hold the edges of the styrene so the corners wouldn't curl up....

After looking into making my own vacuform setup, I decided to go with a pre-made vacuform machine from Micromark. Seeing as how the platen, or forming area on the machine is only 4"x4", I had to scale the whole thing down from this original size.
Made a template, with a 4"x4" opening, and checked Gary's head to see if my machine could handle it.....

Then I did the same with the back half of his highboy, and it just looked too close, so.....

.... I resorted to my low tech method of scaling it down, via the grid system. Top, original plan has 1" squares, and the new plan has 3/4" squares.

Much better fit for the rear of the body. I will be forming just the side panels, left and right, from the master which I will cut down the middle, then join the sides with flat styrene.

Just got the machine yesterday and made sure it got heat and sucked.... 😋. So now it's time to do some carving 😊

So looking forward to creating some kinda creatures, like this guy I Photoshop-ed into a picture of a balsa wood rod I started years ago.

John

[dogfish7]

Very cool John.

[jffj]

Thanks Bruce. Haven't been able to do anything on this for some time, but getting closer to being able to start making the wooden masters and vacuforming.

John

[modelcarfan]

YOu can do it! Dont give up... we are with you!

[jffj]

Ok my fine friendlies, finally got officially started on this, after a bummer session with the new vacuform machine. Real learning curve on that, but the second session went very well 😊
Went back to the original plan, and made a few changes. Originally I was going to vacuform many more parts, but now I am going much simpler. So I cut the frame rails out of a fresh sheet of .060" styrene.

And here's the underneath of Greasy Gary's flattie, with locating tab motor mounts front and rear.

A quick mock-up with the flattie in place and the paper body side too. Oh yeah, I did get some cross members, rear end, and radius rod mounts in place, forming the frame. Also made up a fan blade and inlets for the rad hoses.

Layed out the grill and rad surround on poster board to fit the frame, then cut it out of balsa wood.

After much sanding, then it was time for the grill. Figured I would see if the vacuform machine would pull the hot styrene down into the indented ball point pen lines in the soft balsa. [...that was a big part of the bad first vacuform session- I left the vacuum on too long and the styrene got sucked into the grain of the balsa wood engine block 😲😨...]

😊 Success! I used .020" styrene, and my brain..... 😂, and got good, if delicate results.

Always test fitting, and looks good.
The shell is "delicate" because of how deep I made the balsa form. The farther the styrene is pulled down over the form, the thinner it gets. So, I am learning. Next time I will try some thicker styrene. Instructions say it will handle up to .040" styrene.

In the preceding picture, I made a bit of a representation of the back of the radiator using black .040" styrene. [...thinking of vacuforming a piece of styrene down over some window screen 🤔]
Bottom picture showing the white styrene I fit into the back of the shell, which stiffened it all up good. The grill insert is laying there resting..... 😄

John

[TooOld]

I'm liking your vacuforming posts ! I have an old Mattel machine but have been wondering about the Micro Mark one , and if it's worth the upgrade .
What's the workable mold size it can handle ! Mine is about 3"x 2" , and of course sheet over .020" can't be used .

[jffj]

Thanks Bob, I have wondered about those old Mattel vacuformers, especially after seeing a commercial for them from back in the day. I didn't have one- guess I had a deprived childhood 😄😄 Couldn't believe you have to pump it yourself.

Anyhow, yeah, I definitely recommend the Micromark one, if you can afford it. Apparently it either was, or is, a "dental" model, for making false teeth 🤔😲?? or bridges, etc? Incredible vacuum on it, and very cool (😄) heating system, as well as good instructions, and a bag of small BBs you can put in the "platen" to hold items with an irregular bottom.

The working area of the platen is 4" square, and you can form a piece up to 5" long if you place your form/buck/pattern in the platen diagonally. I haven't tried that yet, but probably will sometime.

The instructions say it will do up to .040" thick styrene, and not to use any polycarbonate [pretty sure that's what they called it]. You cut your styrene to a 5" square, place it in the bottom half of the frame, then lock the top half of the frame down with a nice spring loaded locking knob.

Biggest part of the learning curve seems to be how long you heat the various thickness styrene. I noticed when trying the black .040" styrene, as it got to the called for 3/4" sagging down in the frame, that there was a bit of smoke starting.... and it wasn't a fluke. Did that whenever I tried the .040". Probably why they say no thicker than that?

Other part of the learning curve seems to be how long to use the vacuum, and just trial & error with the different thicknesses and the material your pattern is made from. As I said above, when I left the vacuum on the "recommended" time of 8 seconds, when pulling .030" down over (basically) a balsa wood block shaped like half of this build's engine block- I couldn't get the styrene off the balsa form without ripping it. Tried 3 or 4 times and always the same. Leaving the vacuum suck too long just sucked the hot styrene into the grain of the balsa!

When I did the grill and rad surround, I just heated the .020" styrene (till it sagged), turned off the heat, pulled it down over the pattern- and then hit the vacuum button, leaving it suck only until I saw the styrene pulled down flat- and turned the vacuum off. I'm assuming that if I had used .030" styrene I probably would have had to leave the vacuum on a few nanoseconds more. Trial & error.

Instructions did say to turn off the heat before turning on the vacuum because the heater pulls 20 amps and the vacuum 15.... or viceaversa 🤔 and you could blow a fuse, trip a 30 amp circuit breaker etc.

I was bummed about the first time, but now I feel much better about making the tires and wheels on it, and Greasy Gary as well 😊

John

[TooOld]

I had a Mattel Vac-U-Form when they were new back in '62 or '63 and remember making all kinds of junk so I bought another one a few years ago . It's the same procedure as yours except for the hand pump for the vacuum which I kind of like , it only takes one maybe two quick pumps and the part is done !

[jffj]

Cool, maybe we could get Mattel to reissue it 🤔😄

Sounds like your one or two pumps is what I did on my last session, pulling the styrene down over the grille especially. I basically just switched the vacuum on, and immediately off. The unit has nickel size rocker buttons, the heat button lights up.

The Mattel uses a light bulb for the heat?

Seems like the Micromark one, from my experience, takes a little while to heat up when you first start using it. After that, because the heating unit takes a long time to cool down, subsequent pulls happen quicker- the styrene heats up quicker.

I used to heat some styrene over a stove burner, holding it with two pair of pliers, and then literally pulling it down- way down- over my form. That's OK for some small things, but when I tried to do a larger part, the corners of the larger piece of styrene not held by the pliers would curl and I had no control.

That seems to be one key to the vacuforming- holding the styrene sheet the whole way around the perimeter.

I looked at a lot of YouTube videos of homemade vacuforming setups, and considered making my own, but I already have way too many projects, and finally decided to give the Micromark machine a try. Very happy with it.

John

[yekoms]

As always thanks for all of of this vacuforming stuff. Its just one more thing that I dont have time for but, its interestin' Cheers,Smokey