Fun DIY Chocolate Bar project

[gfron1]

Not sure if anyone follows this guy, but It came up as a suggested video for me and was actually a lot of fun. He tempers sous vide (12/15/18), then creates a custom polycarb bar form with a vacuum forming machine (12/22/18). HERE {As time passes you'll need to go to his posts from late December, 2018.}

[Anna N]

 Enthusiasm to spare!

[curls]

Thanks for the link, interesting videos!

[Kerry Beal]

Nice snap!

[Miriam G]

Love the 'mad scientist' sensibility...great videos!

[curls]

Would be great if we could make our own molds and try out thermoforming at this year's chocolate workshop. @gfron1 know anyone in St. Lois with this sort of machinery?

[gfron1]

13 hours ago, curls said:

Would be great if we could make our own molds and try out thermoforming at this year's chocolate workshop. @gfron1 know anyone in St. Lois with this sort of machinery?

I do and its on my short list. My concern has always been if the flimsy polycarb would be durable enough, and seeing his poor shine (he loved it, I only saw the sheen and waves) did not give me confidence.

[curls]

56 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

I do and its on my short list. My concern has always been if the flimsy polycarb would be durable enough, and seeing his poor shine (he loved it, I only saw the sheen and waves) did not give me confidence.

All very good points. Perhpas a thicker polycarb could be used in a thermoform unit. Would also be interesting to see the results if the tempering, molding, and unmolding were done under ideal conditions. I have gotten good results from some of the Tomric thermoformed molds. They won't last as long as regular polycarb molds but I have gotten better results from them than what I saw in this video and it would be nice to be able to create custom designs on ones own.

[Rajala]

What about the sous vide thing, I always thought you needed movement to get the right crystals? Feels like it takes way too much time to play around with it though.  

[Kerry Beal]

So I wandered in to the shop today where they sell the thermoform units. He told me that given the temperature they operate at the thicker poly should be usable. They had a chocolate mold they had made from a Jack o Lantern they had printed on a 3d printer - it had significant lines on the mold from the 3D process. 

 

 

[Rajala]

3 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

So I wandered in to the shop today where they sell the thermoform units. He told me that given the temperature they operate at the thicker poly should be usable. They had a chocolate mold they had made from a Jack o Lantern they had printed on a 3d printer - it had significant lines on the mold from the 3D process. 

 

 

 

Yeah, I can imagine. You'd really need to print at a much higher quality to use it for this. Whenever I print, I print at 0.1mm per layer - and even that will show in my silicone moulds, however, using it for mousse which you glaze / spray - it doesn't really matter.

[curls]

5 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

So I wandered in to the shop today where they sell the thermoform units. He told me that given the temperature they operate at the thicker poly should be usable. They had a chocolate mold they had made from a Jack o Lantern they had printed on a 3d printer - it had significant lines on the mold from the 3D process. 

 

 

Good to know that the thermoform units can handle the thicker poly. Yeah, a lot of the 3d printed stuff is covered with lines -- would either have to smooth it or come up with another material to put in the thermoform so you have something that you want to mould.

[Kerry Beal]

3D machines that print with resin would work - but very expensive even in table top versions.

Wonder what my machine shop could do with their CNC machine.

 

 

[curls]

Wood, metal, etc. and a CNC should be able to create a nice smooth object to be thermoformed.

[Kerry Beal]

29 minutes ago, curls said:

Wood, metal, etc. and a CNC should be able to create a nice smooth object to be thermoformed.

Question is at what cost!

[Rajala]

Resin machines are a good choice, it isn't that expensive anymore. I could get one for ~475 USD excluding taxes, so it should be available at around that price in the states as well.

 

Build volume is not that good though, that's the bad part with resin machines. I'm getting one when I can get a build volume of 20x20x20 or so, at the price above. My standard PLA printer works well, but new gadgets are fun.  

 

 

 

[curls]

Yes, another rabbit hole has opened up... spent a part of the day looking into the current state of 3D printers. Way more options and lower price points now then when I looked at this stuff a decade ago!

[Kerry Beal]

8 minutes ago, curls said:

Yes, another rabbit hole has opened up... spent a part of the day looking into the current state of 3D printers. Way more options and lower price points now then when I looked at this stuff a decade ago!

It's a deep hole - a very deep hole - and a very expensive hole.

[curls]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

It's a deep hole - a very deep hole - and a very expensive hole.

Indeed it can be! We also have some maker spaces in the vicinity and some of them have amazing equipment. Join the maker club and you get access to lots of tools. Still, in the end I don’t know if this route winds up being any cheaper than ordering custom moulds from a professional (if your order is large enough). Definitely should be cheaper for small quantities of custom moulds. Either way, the equipment is fascinating, takes tons of research, time, and money.  

[Kerry Beal]

If all goes according to plan we will have a Vaquform unit to play with in St Louis.