Q: What colors do your VacuForm panels come in?
A: High Impact Polystyrene and ABS are available in white or black. PETG is available in clear.
Q: Can VacuForm panels be used out doors?
A: If you plan on using vacuform outside, you should purchase our products made of ABS. High Impact Polystyrene becomes brittle when exposed to UV rays and also exhibits quite a bit of expansion when exposed to the heat of the sun which can cause puckering.
Q: What materials do you offer VacuForm in?
A: HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) is the most common and economical vacuform material. It works great for general purpose indoor use where it won't have to take a lot of abuse such as stage scenery, movie scenery, displays, trade shows, themed enviroments, museum displays, etc. We also offer ABS for projects which will expose the product to abusive enviroments such as outdoor use, haunted houses, skirting around mobile homes, foundation cover ups for houses or any where the vacuform will be in contact with the public or have to take bumps and knocks. For projects requiring a clear material such as a glass block look, we off our products in PETG. For the ultimate in crisp detail , extreme temperatures and durability we now offer our products in Kydex Hybrid Thermoplastic Sheet (special order only / minimum qauntities required).
Q: What do the different thicknesses mean?
A: The thicknes refers to how thick the plastic sheet is before we form it. Generally .030" is about half the thickness of a credit card. .060" is about the thickness of a credit card.
Q: What do I have to do to finish the VacuForm?
A: You will need to trim and paint the vacuform to finish it.
Q: What kind of paints should I use to paint vacuform.
A: Latex, Acrylic & Enamels work great on vacuform. When painting the ABS you will need to prime it first with an enamel primer such as rust-oleum.
Q: Is VacuForm easy to trim?
A: Generally yes. The .030 HIPS trims easily with scissors or a matte knife. We prefer to use Fiskar Shop Shears with searated blades (Home Depot Tool Coral) as this makes the cutting go easier. For the .060 materials you may want to use a jig saw with a fine blade, in the shop we use air powered shears on the thicker materials.
Q: Can you roll VacuForm made from the thicker materials (.060" HIPS or .060" ABS) for shipping.
A: The thicker VacuForm materials generally do not roll as well. VacuForm sheets thicker than .040" will be shipped flat on a pallet via an LTL Freight Carrier
Q: What carrier do you ship with?
A: We ship with Fedex, UPS and LTL Freight carriers. We use whoever gives us the best price and delivery terms. Most of our domestic ground packages go by FedEx Ground or Less Than Truckload Freight Carriers. Our Canadian bound packages ship via UPS Standard or Less Than Truckload Freight Carriers.
Q: What other names are associated with Vacuform.
A: Thermo-Form & Vacuum Formed are common industry names. Looking at search results from Google we see that many people are calling it things like "Fake Brick", "Fake Rock", "Faux Brick", "Faux Rock", "Plastic Brick", "Plastic Rock", etc.
