to add to my post above perfict vacuum is 30in i had a old ac machien that would pull 30in of vaccum exact but had a small diamiter hose and could not pull the vacuum fast e-nuff befor the plastic coold back down
my shop vac only pulls about 15in of vaccum but dose it as soon as its turnd on. im not shore what your sorce of vacuum is and how fast or how much vacuum it can pull but these are the two most impotant aspects of the vacuum former
Great simple design… And a great suggestion for using plastic signs as a material. I’ve been putting off building my vacuum forming table, but now I don’t have an excuse! I’ve been putting this project off, for fear of the complexity.
Its good to know that you simply staple the plastic to the frame. The reference book I have has a complicated frame arrangement, which is likely needed for professional results, but is probably unnecessarily complex for hobbyist purposes.
I originally wanted to build a vacuum-form table to make parts for puppets/ animatronics - particularly the eyes, ears, nose, hands and feet. The comment about the Easter packaging made me think of my current puppet eyes. I use ping-pong balls for the eyes and plastic Easter eggs for the eyelids… It looks like this LOL 
The two are a good size match. The eyes were originally mechanically controlled for a puppet, but my current project is converting them to servo-control.
dj