First pull was today. Going by internet wisdom/consensus/my basic experimentation I only heated the .065 ABS to 275-300F. It took approx 3 minutes to get it there. Really happy with that. I only went to 275ish because the net says most vac formers just go by how much the material sags and how it waves . From my screwing around experimenting with a heat gun I thought I had a pretty good idea what would work. Pulled the sheet off the oven and placed on the vac table and it sucked right down in about a second and a half at most. The 5 stage vac motor worked really well IMO. Too well as a matter of fact with the .065 material. As soon as it had pulled down it sucked a hole right through it in an area that trims off.I had the pattern on 1/2 inch spacers to allow vacuum to reach the full perimeter. I think that had I used 1/4 inch it would not have pulled through.  I'll do a pull tomorrow with the .125 . I "think" it will work well and 1/4 inch spacers are more than adequate and not suck a hole in it.  All in all though I was completely happy with today's results.

With some preliminary experimentation I think I will try to get the ABS to 375F.  Also am going to make first pull with .065 material.

Looks good. I haven't done ABS vac forming since school - cough-ahem years ago. Will be interested to see if those cup holder form.

 

I'll do the platen/vac motor  tomorrow assuming the vac motor gets here. 210" w.c. and 15+- CFM will apply approx 15psi atmosphere pressure over the entire pattern. Hopefully that will be sufficient with ABS @300* ish temp and .125 thickness. It will either work or not.