How to bend acrylic

[witecap4u]

Can anyone give me a how to on bending acrylic? Also, where can I find some black acrylic? I need to make a couple corner overflow box's for my new tank....Thanks

CS

[Gin_Tseng]

It really depends on how much you want to bend it. You could get one of those little hand torches from homedepot, but you have to heat the acrylic slowly on the area where you want to bend it because if you heat it up too fast the acrylic will bubble up. You can also do it the cheap way and put it in the over at around 230 degrees or a little higher. you can have the acrylic sheet on the ledge of a baking pan and let it bend itself then just what till the sheet has cooled off to take it out.

[Richard]

You should be able to get it at Regal Plastics on Rittiman road. They might even be able to make you one.

[Nano_Steve]

whitecap, im beggin you here. i have two huge sheets of black acrylic that have been in my trunk ever since we went dumpster diving before thanksgiving!!! :shock: i HAVE to get it out and i finally found someone who wants it! its pretty good quality acrylic that my friends and i got from an acrylic shop's dumpster off of louis henna rd.(i cant remember the actual name of the place) you are much more than welcome to take the sheets, they should last awhile, i also have a pretty thick sheet of red acrylic too.

regards, steve

[Tim Marvin]

I can give you a better alternative.......Call Bill....He'll hook you up at a good price.

[Henry]

Hey steve if he doesn't take the acylic, I might be interested. or maybe just a little piece.

Henry

[Tim Marvin]

Whatever they don't take Steve, bring it by and we can build something for you out of it.

[witecap4u]

Steve, that would be great, let me take some measurements, and see what I need, and you can give the rest to whoever else needs it. Do you know how thick it is? I'll shoot ya a PM too..cs

[matt]

Sorry for the late post; I just found this. I'm about to make an overflow for my new tank. I'm going to solvent weld 2 pieces of cast acrylic together and then use a round-off bit to finish the corner. Bending without a good controllable heat source is something I'd avoid. I guess there are these heat tapes which apply the heat exactly where you want it and don't distort the acrylic elsewhere, but I'm okay with welding/rounding off.

Matt

[Charley]

I have seen acrylic bending heaters made by running electricity through a long piece of 1/4" all-thread. The all-thread is surrounded by drywall and 1xs to keep it from getting too hot. I do not know if they use a resistor in series to limit the current. This thing was maybe 4 feet long. Depending on the electrical properties of 1/4" all-thread, one may not be needed. I would at least have a variable resistor somewhere in the circuit, along with a circuit breaker or fuse. Electricity is fun, but the dance it teaches you isn't.

Doing some research on the web, I see one site talking about using a nickel / chrome wire, at 24 to 48 volts. The site is in the UK, so YMMV. The link is http://www.bayplastics.co.uk/product%20guide/Altuglas-guidenavbar/prod-altuglass-tech%28bending%29.htm

Charley

[Tim Marvin]

They also sell heat strips at the acrylic shops. I paid like $40 for a 4 ft. heat strip. It is basically what Charley said, but made for you already. They work great.

[Charley]

Here is a site that sells them:

http://www.craftics.com/products.cfm?Category=11&cfid=1403133&cftoken=6009 9906

I've not done business with them, but their prices look nice.

Charley

[Tim Marvin]

Right I have the middle one. It is a rubber coated heater. It does a great job on 1/4 inch if your patient. It sure would be cool to have the 50 inch one, but almost $500 ouch. Bill Mahaffey has all the special tools so I just let him build them since he does it all the time, and I don't have to learn the hard way. Sheets of the thicker acrylic can be a costly mistake if you mess up. Besides I have not had a tank leak yet that Bill has built.

[utmachete]

Ok guys what exactly are you wanting to do. I can bend the acrylic do whatever and I'll charge you a lot less than buying strips. So Pm me and I'll hook you up. I can bend up to 1/2 inch thick acrylic.

[prof]

http://www.plasticstogo.com/tools.htm

Another link...