<p>Jim, that was just a try out with the local dentist, years ago before I actually bought a machine myself. They only had the soft blurry material as in the pictures, but from then on I knew it was possible to do it. As far as I know they use the machine for this: when you need one false tooth, you have to bite into a sort of blue clay. The imprint is sent to a lab, where they place a vacuform on it. Then the clay is taken out, and filled with the stuff to make a new tooth. I probably explained it too simple, but basicly that is it. The place where I went to see it is actually not a dentist, but the lab, together with a facility to have your teeth cleaned.</p>

<p>The try out material already arrived: one sheet of 0.5 and one of 0.75 millimeter thick.</p>
<p>I now have to cut them myself, make the holes and try them out.</p>

That is a good write up of the process. Kees, please PM me your home address, I have some A4 pvc sheets I want to send you

<p>Thanks Theo,I sent you a PM. Looking forward to your material, and what the difference will be between yours and what I have here.</p>

And it sounds like the experiment has started. This will be interesting to see how Kees does with the sizing of the sheets and the holes he has to punch. We also have to see how the sheets of PVC will work that Theo is mailing. Much cheaper than a drive, that is for sure.

I shipped the sheets yesterday

<p>Thanks Theo, looking forward to that.</p>
<p>Indeed I started the new experiment. Story and pictures to follow.</p>

<p>Here we go. Here the material I recieved from the factory. As I said, I order 0.9 mm thick sheets from them, simply because the original sheets which came with the Chinese machine were 0.9 as well.</p>
<p>So this time they sent me two sheets, 0,5 and 0.75 mm thick.</p>
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<p>Normally they cut the sheets, but obviously they did not this time, because I needed to drill holes.</p>
<p>So, like TB suggested, cut out an exact shape for the Mattel, and I clamped an original on top of of it. I tried 0.5 mm first.</p>
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<p>Then I drilled holes al the way around.</p>
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<p>Here the new sheet, with both protective layers removed. It looks good doesn't it?</p>
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<p>I placed it into the Mattel, and it fitted quite well.</p>
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<p>I heated the new form, and you can actually feel it being warmed up, untill it gets hot, and deforms a bit. You can actually press your finger into it a bit, and the shape stays. Also, by pressing it in a bit when it is still not too hot, you can see the frame still has grip on all sides, and the sheet does not pop out.</p>

<p>This might be a bit difficult to see, but the material did not shape well around the original. The conclusion is that the first part was succesfull: I can drill holes, and make new units for the Mattel. However, handpumping the material is far to thick.</p>
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<p>The shape of the Bat glazing is hardly pressed into the new sheet. But the experiment is only starting. I will now try the 0.5 sheets in the Chinese machine. As I only used 0.9 up till now, hopefully the 0.5 sheets will not get a hole into them!</p>

<p>The conclsio is that the Mattel can only for thin sheets, thinner than 0.5 milimeter and I think the thickness should be even less than that.</p>
<p>This next experiment succeeded: the Chinese machine holds the 0.5 sheets in place, and does it's job perfectly. Again, from the start I used the same material for the Chinese machine, but 0.9 mm. The material does NOT break, and I was curious if the heater would blow a hole in the 0.5 sheet. It did not, and it makes great forms.</p>
<p>Here the results:</p>
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<p>The originals can be better seperated from the sheets than with the 0.9. The forms still have be worked on, as I only cut the outside.</p>
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Nice walk through and it does look like the two different thicknesses work in your Chinese machine. As it is a stronger suction it only makes sense that the material should be thicker in order for it to work as intended. The thinner the material the better it would work in the Mattel machine. Can you get any 3mm or 2mm material from your supplier? How thick did Theo say his was and of thinner, it may be the way to go.

<p>First of all Theo's parcel arrived! Thanks Theo, I will get to those later.</p>
<p>Jim, I used 0.9 mm from the start in my Chinese one. This was the chanche to try out other thicknesses. So, 0,5 works in the Chinese one, and no doubt 0.75 too, as that is between 0.5 and 0.9. I will try 0.75, although it does not make sense. 0.5 is already very strong, and thick enough for windows.</p>
<p>I don't think Theo mentioned the thibkness of his sheet,s but they are quite thin. I will try them out later.</p>