Charles Angelich wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

CA>> Low to no pressure molding would limit access to certain _types_ 
CA>> of plastic but for a case to hold other parts that shouldn't be a 
CA>> problem. 

RJT> Hm. Is any of this applicable to making stuff at home? Or is it 
RJT> only something you'd want to get into for a certain volume of 
RJT> "stuff"? 

CA> I know there was a kid's toy that could make things using vacuum 
CA> molding and it was used by the engineer who designed the 
CA> 'Mako-shark' Corvette concept vehicle to make his slot car bodies. 
CA> :-)  It was called a 'Vacu-Form'.

I remember that thing,  though heaven only knows if it's even still
available. Or how practical it'd be for different uses.  My memory suggests
that it worked with really thin plastic...

Typical of toy makers/sellers to not have stuff like that.  There were a
whole mess of things out there when I was a kid that don't seem to be
around any more,  mostly things that would let you build stuff.  Erector
sets in particular are getting really hard to find.  The local ToysRUs
store told me that they'd gone out of business,  which turned out not to be
the case.

CA> Foam molding would be comparatively easy to do but I seem to recall
CA> the catalyst was eurea (urine smell) and I think that without
CA> adequate ventilation it can be deadly?

I remember a Lionel (!) plastics kit I had at one time that included among
other things the supposed ability to make styrofoam with a couple of molds
supplied.  There were problems when I tried that,  using the oven,  one
time producing a black charred result,  the other time not being long
enough and a pile of pellets fell out of the mold.  Don't think I ever did
get a good one before I lost interest in it.

CA> A wood model maker demonstrated one reason these types of 
CA> chemicals are not used by hobbyists by putting two rags soaked 
CA> with different types one on top of the other and they burst
CA> into flames within about 2 minutes. Not good.

Heh.  Do you recall what was on them?  Sounds like something to avoid at
all costs.  I worry sometimes about different chemicals I have sitting
around,  things for automotive and other applications.

CA> If you just want to dabble you could use auto-body filler as the 
CA> 'plastic' and make the 'mold' from parffin (wax).  Easy to do and 
CA> you can remelt the wax and reuse it many times.

Good idea.  And it's easy enough to work with the results,  though I don't
know how much this would apply to any of what I want to do.

CA> Last time I checked you could build quite elaborate circuits by
CA> gluing surface-mount chips onto a business card and drawing in the
CA> circuit board with a pencil.  Who needs a case?

Oh really?!  Wow,  there's a thought.  You'd have to get something better
than an ordinary #2 pencil,  though,  easy enough to do at an art supply
store.  But then I've never really had much desire to mess with
surface-mount stuff,  I could probably salvage some of it but don't think
I'd necessarily want to work with it much.

There was an article in the current issue of Nuts 'n' Volts about doing
your own at home,  and they basically seemed to be talking about producing
a stencil and then using paste solder for the soldering.  You'd have to buy
the stencil from a commercial producer,  and the paste solder as well.  The
actual soldering operation was done in a toaster oven.  Seemed like a lot
of trouble to go to,  to me.  Unless there was something you wanted to do
that was *only* available in that kind of a part configuration...

The article did say that "through-hole" parts were getting
scarcer all the time.  I am not particularly worried about it as for
home-brew stuff I have plenty of parts,  enough to keep me out of trouble
for some time yet.  

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