# Wall panels



## BrotherMysterio (Nov 25, 2011)

Is it possible to vacuform 4'x8' panels at home?


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## shadowopal (Aug 9, 2007)

BrotherMysterio said:


> Is it possible to vacuform 4'x8' panels at home?


Possible....yes. but, difficult. You would need to either buy or build your own vacuform machine. They are expensive to buy and not cheap and difficult to build. Plus there is the expense of the plastic. I built a small vacuform machine and ended up spending a lot of time getting just a small one to work poorly.


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## BrotherMysterio (Nov 25, 2011)

shadowopal said:


> Possible....yes. but, difficult. You would need to either buy or build your own vacuform machine. They are expensive to buy and not cheap and difficult to build. Plus there is the expense of the plastic. I built a small vacuform machine and ended up spending a lot of time getting just a small one to work poorly.


What plans did you use to make the vacuform machine?


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I suppose anything is possible given enough time, money and effort. The keys t good vacuum forming are having plenty of vacuum stored up, having a good seal between the plastic and the forming base and having an even heat of the plastic sheet.


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## Allen H (Feb 13, 2010)

the heat is the bummer- a 2 shop vacs can give you enough suction. really harfd to evenly heat a 4x8 sheet without a ton of power draw or a propane set up- big pain.


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## Allen H (Feb 13, 2010)

here are the best plans online that I know of.
http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html


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## BrotherMysterio (Nov 25, 2011)

corey872 said:


> I suppose anything is possible given enough time, money and effort. The keys t good vacuum forming are having plenty of vacuum stored up, having a good seal between the plastic and the forming base and having an even heat of the plastic sheet.


Would that be implicit in the quality of the design of the vacuform machine. I.e., if the machine is designed correctly, the concerns can be accounted for?



Allen H said:


> the heat is the bummer- a 2 shop vacs can give you enough suction. really harfd to evenly heat a 4x8 sheet without a ton of power draw or a propane set up- big pain.





Allen H said:


> here are the best plans online that I know of.
> http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html


What about two half panels, like two 4'x4's, and then putting them side by side?


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

BrotherMysterio said:


> Would that be implicit in the quality of the design of the vacuform machine. I.e., if the machine is designed correctly, the concerns can be accounted for?
> 
> What about two half panels, like two 4'x4's, and then putting them side by side?


The correct design would help a lot...quality construction is the other key. Though, with a 4x8 machine, you'd need a pretty big investment to get the thing built. I guess what I am trying to convey is - you'd probably need to make hundreds if not thousands of panels to offset cost and complexity of building the machine. If you just need a few to a few dozen panels, you might be better to just carve them out of foam sheets.


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## Allen H (Feb 13, 2010)

what theme will your sheets be? If you are building a space staion/alien space ship/Govt facility then go with vacuform.
Vacuform normally looks a bit unnatural- If you want to do rock or brick then go foam. Its faster and cheaper per panel than vacuform.
the plastic is ~$40 a sheet and the set up time is ~2hrs/ panel and then paint time+ you have to use special paint (most does not stick well to that type of plastic).
Carving a foam rock panel can take 2hrs but normally they take less. then you can paint and hard coat and still be done in less time with less cost.


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

I had a professor in grad school that would save all the vacuum formed blister packs from packaging and glue them onto walls. We had a packaging mfg in the area and he would take all the rejects from their work for that reason. We did a high tech looking tin man's forest for The Wizard of Oz using that stuff.

I agree with Allen, though. If you're doing stone, use foam. If you're doing brick consider the tape and texture method where you tape out the mortar with quarter inch wide tape (leave long ends) then you put joint compound, or monster mud, or stucco about a quarter inch thick on your wall. Pull the tape while it's still wet, then set it aside and let it dry. Paint it and you will have a far more convincing brick than vacuum form.

By the way, the best primer I've found for painting plastics is super 77 spray adhesive. The trick to painting plastic is to find a primer that will stick to the plastic and then will allow paint to stick to it. Super 77 does that very well.


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

For brick, stone or rock walls, I have to agree with Allen. Use foam. You can build a panel out of plastic if you want, but it'll cost you 3 times as much as just buying one from a haunt manufacturer. I've found vacuform panels for as low as $125 unpainted, or $425 painted. For $425, I could build roughly 10 foam wall panels. For the fungus room we're planning on building, I've figured out how to get the price down to about $35 a panel, and using recycled soft foam for the fungi, I can probably get it lower than that. For futuristic or alien scene wall panels, you can always build the panel to have a concave shape, and spread bondo in the sharp corners, making them seem rounded.


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