Roof switch pod

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationNo eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationSo with installing all sorts of extra stuff ive come to the point of needing switches.

Bought a load of these for all the different things:



and made this for them to go into out of 1mm steel sheet:




and pulled the headlining out for a clean and to make brackets on the roof for the pod to attach to:




But then a friend said - what about using that as a mold for vacuum forming?

I can see what he's saying because the metal is fairly heavy, a plastic molded one would be much easier to mount up there. So had a look and found this stuff:



and a video on youtube about how to make a vacuum forming box and heat the plastic in an oven. Looks pretty straightforward, but advice would be appreciated. The mould being steel could be re-used many times also I think i saw something about vacuum forming that Kiethy was doing for wheel arches?

Riccy.

I like bespoke work well done
Yes Keithy built his own vac forming machine

Jack

Yeah turbo keithy is the man to talk to

I saw the metal part and thought vac form.....I see you have too!

I'll be going a different route on the overhead console....bit of storage and cb mount mainly.....one line of switches across.

I built a 4' X 3' belovac style vac former to make the bodykit but I'll be building a smaller one for the 350mm off-cuts I have from making the bodykits.

I'll build it similar to the phlatformer with the heater elements below the sheet and use the vac pump from the big boy.

I quite like the metalwork you've made......you need a tig welder next!

I use a cnc router I made a few years back for pattern making......you'll need one of those soon too!

Get it built and pull some skin! the small stuff is I'd say easy.....the larger stuff gets a little tricky.

I use an industrial vac pump weighing 100kg but I think a dyson with the filters removed would do 2mm easy enough.

Don't forget to think outside the box and allow for the thickness of the material and the way it affects radii<posh word for radiusses....

as an aside, the original patterns I made with mdf were ruined by the vac forming company after one pull......I've made 3 bodykits and the patterns are still good as new......bloody vac forming company....£300 for the mdf weeks of machining and £500 for the bodykit made that exercise an expensive one.

Great stuff.

Thanks everyone for the comments... more progress...

Ive Glued it to a bit of plywood which has rounded corners and dimples for fixing screws,

This should make an edge that can be trimmed easily to the roof profile and provide fixing points.

Just need the sheets to arrive to start playing! (and to make the boxes)



Kiethy - my welding is really not up to much im using a gasless mini-mig at the moment, which is messy to say the least. maybe its time to invest in something better! Tig looks pretty difficult to get right.

For a vac i have an old 1800w bosch vaccum cleaner that has loads of suck once the filters are taken out, and goes straight onto full power when switched on (unlike my newer henry which starts at half power and has to be persuaded into full go mode). Im hoping this will be enough. i was planning to heat the plastic in the oven (good job i live on my own!).

I learned to stick weld at age 10....then gas and mag...tig is same as gas.....first time I tried tig I was thrown out of the welders shop for showing them up

See how you go with the vac forming.......I'm making a full bodykit Saturday ......your part could accidentally fall onto the bed at the same time if you're near Leeds?

Though doing it yourself is more satisfying.

Keithy wrote: I learned to stick weld at age 10....then gas and mag...tig is same as gas.....first time I tried tig I was thrown out of the welders shop for showing them up

See how you go with the vac forming.......I'm making a full bodykit Saturday ......your part could accidentally fall onto the bed at the same time if you're near Leeds?

Though doing it yourself is more satisfying.

Very tempting! ive got to work sat morning however, so probs a not this time im afraid. Im near Carlisle so no that far.

I have however had enough time after work today to make a vac box...


and with the plastic ive ordered from ebay (above) im going to have a go on sunday (if plastic arrives). Heating the plastic will have to be in the [domestic] oven so ive ordered some spare plastic to allow for bo-boo's.

I was working in a school today that had a vac forming machine hanging around spare, but it was just too small for this, looked ideal otherwise. they just teach the kids cad/cam and CNC stuff these days (they also had gas mig and tig welders hanging around - ive told the caretaker to call me if they want some £ for them)

Schools and college's always have a clarke vac former knocking around......cad-cam is the future.....especially if you don't like working with wood!

remember to blank those rectangular holes.....hopefully it doesn't burst?

Plastic sheets arrived today

finished off the vac box and made a clamp frame for the plastic sheet.

clamped in a sheet and had a go (well 4 actually, 1st on the left)...



Fairly pleased with them as a test run and a couple of them would be ok if carpeted, but generally i havent got enough suck and have problems with the heating in the oven (is too big so has to sit on a funny angle meaning uneven heating. might be better under the grille than in the fan oven).

overall... learned a lot for £25 spend. will probably carpet one and use that. Further attempts would need a smaller sheet & moulding to fit oven properly and more suck from the vacuum (could i use two together or would they cancel each other out?)

Oh, and yes i did weld some plates over the large holes loosely, which allowed a bit of a dimple where the cutout will be

Now that is a fair attempt....with a successful outcome!

Congrats you have a useable part Riccy!!