Another Decade...

Well, if I've got to grow older, then I deserve cool stuff to make up for it.

So, roll on my newly acquired C R Clarke 1210 vacuum former. Photos to follow, but for the uninitiated, it's a plastic former that uses a combination of heating elements and a vacuum pump to form plastic over metal/wood/plaster/resin formers.

I've made some modifications already to the vacformer, the most major being the replacement of the rear rubber feet with steel slotted rail (actually DIN rail) to better bare the weight of the former across the rear structure (and offer a great way of mounting it to a workbench).

I've been mentally forming a list of things I plan to make on my new toy professional work apparatus, including hovercrafts, boats, chocolate moulds, ice trays and much more. Well, so much more that I'm forced to keep a list with me, adding lots at random moments of the day.

I've built plenty of formers in the past and have lots of experience with chipping plastic off of complex formers, spreading wax and other shit (recommended by clueless "experts") over the formers, burning plastic, cracking plastic and occasionally, making something really nice. My most successful former (a fairly complex wooden one, made of multiple laminations of wood) is still in heavy use in an engineering lab some 14-15 years later.

Anyway, I can't wait to start building formers - can't beat a present that keeps on giving...