Vacuum forming.

Today I got trained by Eric on how to use the Rep's vacuum form machine!
He showed me how to do it and helped through the steps for the first 2 sheets.  Then I did 8 more over the course of the day, getting quite comfortable with the process.

 You can use many kinds of thermo plastics in vacuum forming.  For this project we used clear 3mm PETG.  http://www.lairdplastics.com/product/materials/petg
There are thicker and colored plastics.  Eric chose 3mm to get the finer detail. 

 These components are being combined and painted to make wall sconces for End Of The Rainbow.

Clamping down the sheet of plastic to the frame which will be raised in the air and heated by the oven in the top of the unit.

The vacuum forming unit.  On top is the oven. Below is the vacuum tank connected up to the perforated table.  These are the 4 elements being formed.  Sheet of plastic is raised in the air being heated.  Takes about 2 minuets from start of heating to lowering it down and vacuuming the shapes.

4 shapes to be made.  Important to note, you can't have any undercuts on shapes or it will get sealed in.

hot plastic lowered and objects sealed in.

The plastic sets very fast 4-6 seconds.  here is the sheet removed to a table with the shapes still in. Shapes are trimmed out with tin snips

rough cut out of shapes

close up.  The forms were made up of MDF that had been cut with a cut away machine and polyurethaned heavily to withstand being used multiple times and keep the intricate detail.

The shapes then had a blank that connected underneath.  These blanks were exactly the same as the topping shape.  This was important since i needed to router around all the forms to evenly trim the plastic.  At the router table a special router bit was used that was inset by an 8th of and inch.  This left a better looking, and less brittle, edge to the pieces.  When routering I had to be careful.  The plastic wanted to crack up edges. The cracking effect is one reason we made 10 sets for the needed 8 sconces.

Trimmed and removed pieces. Ready to be taken to paint.

This particular plastic is food safe and completely recyclable.

Other Forever Plaid

Here are some more projects that I worked on for Forever Plaid.

Fake cigarette.

  This cigarette needed to be pulled out and handled a little bit, but is never lit.  The actor pulls one out and walks off stage.  I looked in stock and there weren't any that were the right size and would hold up to an 8 week run.  So I made one.

There was a Marlboro lights pack with a broken cigarette.  I used the broken one as reference for paint and lettering.
some supplies used include, dowel, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, utility knife, foam, pack of cigarettes, hot glue

I stuffed the cigarette pack with 2 pieces of foam and then relined with the silver wrapper. I used 2 foam pieces so there would be a slot for the fake cigarette to be pulled from and reinserted easily.  Above you can see the cut dowel pre-paint next to the broken reference cigarette

Real cigarette on left.  Painted one on right.  I cut a piece of dowel to the correct length.  Using white and some burnt umber to paint it.  I penciled on the lines and Marlboro name and then fine brush painted them on with a paint mixed of gold and bronze.

The tobacco end I painted also with burnt umber and dark brown with a little white mixed in.  I had loose tobacco from the broken cigarette as reference.

Fake cigarette inserted in the pack

Newspaper clippings These are handled by the actors.  Katie printed of the few articles needed onto newspaper print.  We cut them out and scrap-booked them onto paper using rubber cement and adding tape accents.

Lyrics from the sky. These lyrics come from a ceiling drop during the show.  We needed to make planty of them, and also make them period.  Katie wrote up the appropriate lyrics onto different kinds of paper and scanned then in and double sided printed them.  I cut them out, adding paper punch holes and rounding edges as needed to complete the look.

 

Fabric cover of foam core boards for record wall decoration

Taffeta does not like to be taped or glued.  These 4 foam boards needed to get covered in the plaids that had been picked out and then put into the frames.  Initially tried taping them down, just pulled up with time.  So I used upholstery T pins poked in very shallow to hold the fabric in place.  I took the time to line up the plaid patterns pleasingly, centering a chosen color stripe vertically