Yeah, He bought an industrial vacuum former previously used in the automotive industry at Volvo(which incidently is where I perform my dayjob).
I can help you out with a print on a DLP resin printer. Located in Germany.Thank you so much for the offer but I think I will be able to print these with a 0.2mm nozzle. Need to work on the Chinese characters and print in PLA. This is PETG at 0.05mm layer height but PETG isn't that good for printing fine detail.
Thank you so much for the offer. I am in Germany only a few times a year.I can help you out with a print on a DLP resin printer. Located in Germany.
Looks like Weta is using pressure forming for these helmets - that seems doable. Just wondering what material they use?
A great benefit to blow molding the dome like WETA did, is that you end up with a clearer bubble. When you vacuform into or over a form, you can pick up surface imperfections from the slightest bit of dust to sanding scratches. Your form has to be absolutely perfect and clean. It's do-able, but inherently less clear.
You could also use acrylic sheet.
It's a bit more brittle than PETG, but the clarity is better. PETG has an ever-so-slight blue color to it, but it does vacuform really well.
So they both have their pros and cons.
Had to increase the Chinese characters a little but otherwise the 0.2mm nozzle worked out nicely for this.Looks really clean, great print quality I have to say!
Very cool. That is a heavy duty machine. Don't think it thinned out much. Barely made it at the bottom. Do you know what material was used for the buck?Finally got my dome formed yesterday, Took a good amount of time to get it done but it's finally on it's way
There's a short clip of it forming on my Instagram
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As it turns out, the most tricky part I find, is the Emergency oxygen-text. It's really hard to keep the detail while adding primer/filler/paint and try to make the print-layers invisible. I'd had to redo my latest build a couple of times by removing the paint by airbrushing acetone locally over the text. Quite a mess Anyway, my advice is not add any radii to text-edge I guess.