HOW CAN I GET STARTED?
This is one of those good news bad news scenarios. I hope it turns out good news for you. First for the bad news. You cannot easily find quality machines (my opinion) to outright purchase at this point in time unless you go commercial $$$. It's my belief that this is why the process is not more popular for personal output. The best way to start forming is to DIY and build your own. Quality plays a very important roll in results. There are a lot of peg board and vacuum cleaner examples out there, but if you really want to get serious there's but few choices in my opinion. This is a case of "you get out what you put in".
The good news is Workshop Publishing makes excellent plans for building a quality machine. Doug Walsh the owner of WP has spent many years researching and developing plans that reap professional results at a very reasonable cost. He also publishes a well written book of Vacuum Forming basics that I highly recommend. This book will give you very accurate information.
If you can pass the initiation of building a former of your own you will be amaze with what you can do with this machine. I like the ability to design with few limits and then actually make what I design to prove my vision. I work with client constraints all the time and it feeds my soul to build only to please myself while waiting for client approvals or to bridge gaps in work. Few processes offer the ability to form parts where you can simulate injection molding, a process that is used to mold most plastics you see in a store. It may sound too good to be true but the items in my store will hopefully relieve any skepticism.
If you still have commitment woes I will soon offer a way to ease into this niche. In the Keep It Simple Store I will offer projects in different stages of completion. My goal is to get YOU interested in micro manufacturing your own creations in the comfort of your own home. I will offer finished projects for those who just want to experience the novelty and uniqueness of what I design. I will also offer DIY part aka garage kits for those who want the experience of assembling something but are just not ready to build a machine. For those of you that are sure it's for you and want to get started, I now offer Workshop Publishing plans to build your own quality Vacuum Former. For complete build plans, go to the home page and scroll down to the featured products section where you'll find links to purchase the plans.