For the past four Wednesdays we’ve been using the Hobby-vac vacuum former we built to create chocolate molds. We’ve found a great plastic sheet to use from widgetworksunlimited.com. It’s PETG which is FDA food safe and is the same plastic you see all those “clam shell” packages at the stores. We did need to visit shark vacuums at homecleanexpert to supply ourselves with the proper equipment, normal vacuums just wont cut it for this. There are four steps to using the vacuum former:
- Set the plastic into the frame.
- Suck the air out of the tank with the vacuum pump.
- Start the heater to slightly melt the plastic sheet.
- Flip the frame and sheet over the platen with the bucks and open the valve to let the air through the platen into the tank pulling the plastic tight around whatever you put on the platen, holding its shape when it cools.
Here’s the wiki page for our vacuum former: https://wiki.melbournemakerspace.org/VacuumFormer
Here’s a photo album with all the pictures from the past four chocolate experiment nights: https://goo.gl/photos/xwMjhbAikeCSeuHm7
