Kingston Vacuum Works

Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former

Review by Thorsten Wieking on Apr 1 2009

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Since 2000 Kingston Vacuum Works is known for making easy to use vacuforming tables, sizes ranging from the Canopy Master (3½ inches x 3½ inches) up to the Zeppelin Master (11 inches x 16 inches), giving modellers more options for their vacuform projects than the old, trusty Mattel toy ever could (Don’t get me wrong, I must admit that I too got my hands on one and treasure it – just for its historic significance)

But, back into the present day, I want to present you a new product developed by Eliot Brown of Kingston Vacuum Works – the Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former.

Looks like the already familiar products? Yes, this time it comes with a working area of 2¾"x6". So what’s all the fuzz about that a guy from Germany gets so excited about? Let’s take a look at the second picture

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Yes, the working area on the Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former can be exchanged and replaced with this one. So what? Do we need one big, oval form? No, we need globes – as you might have already guessed from the name of this vacuforming table. And how do we get them?

First, we take one of the supplied sheets of plastic and make holes in the diameters of the needed globes. A thorough step-by-step instruction can be found on http://www.warmplastic.com

After placing this template on the Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former, we place a sheet of plastic within the frames, clamp the frames and put everything into the oven – of course after setting up everything else that’s needed like the vacuum cleaner. 

What happens next? Nothing! Why? Because I should have mentioned to set the oven on a temperature of about 350° F (175° C). Now the fun begins (and believe me, vacuforming makes fun!), because when the plastic gets soft, you take it out of the oven, place it over the Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former with the vacuum cleaner already running and voila – see the plastic getting sucked into the holes, thereby forming the globes or domes. It all depends on the power of the vacuum cleaner, thickness of the plastic and how soft it got. 

So, after reading my short description, you think that you’ll need plenty of practice to master this craft? Well, actually No – in my humble opinion it doesn’t take too much of practice to get first results. But if you do – the Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former comes with enough sheets of plastic for many vacuforming sessions.

So, you think I’m finished with my small article? Not at all! Because when I first saw this new product, I remembered something I already tried when I first got the Canopy Master two years ago. So far, we usually make a vacuformed part by pulling it of a positive master, resulting in the new formed part being a little bit bigger than the master. Not much of a problem when you take this already in account when making the master. But what about parts you already have in the right dimensions? You could sand them down, losing all details. Or you make a negative mould of them, just like I did with three old canopies I found in my spares box. 

From left to right – Hasegawa A-37 Canopy – Matchbox P-38 Lighting – piece of cardboard I mounted the canopies on that got stuck to the plaster – Matchbox Hawker Hunter T.Mk.7

After drilling a few holes in the plaster mould, I placed it on the working area, heated a sheet of clear plastic, started the vacuum cleaner and got a nice, positive pull of all three canopies, including raised canopy frames! 

The Mighty Mini Globe-O-Former is available at

The Kingston Vacuum Works
P.O. Box 3301
Kingston, NY 12402
USA
Toll Free (877) 560-6398
Fax (877) 852-8732

http://www.warmplastic.com 

Thorsten Wieking

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Photos and text © by Thorsten Wieking