How to bend acrylic ?

[spence15610]

I am wanting to bend 2 pieces of 1/4"acrylic 6" wide 90 degrees, I am figuring that it will need to be heated, but not sure of how or how much, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

 

[8BALL_99]

I use a blowTourch.. Just be carefull and keep the flame moving or the Acrylic will get lil bubbles on the surface. HTH

 

[BruiseAndy]

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=169

 

[8BALL_99]

I've got one of those too.. But for a 6" wide peice it would be a waste.. No reason to spend that much for such a small job..JMO

 

[240-Reefer]

house hold oven
Cast 300 deg. for 25 min
Ext 275 deg. for 25 min

 

[chipmaker]

What 240-reefer says. I place my pieces on a cookie sheet to reduce its tendency to droop between the oven racks bar spacings. Much better than a torch...or heat gun

 

[comatose]

i put mine in my outside BBQ grill as you can see in my DIY section of my webpage, worked well and i didn't have to worry about fumes and explosive gasses the acriylic gives off.

 

[mpomfret]

Questions for 240-reefer:

Are the times you give a ball-park for 1/8th in thick acrylic, 1/4 in, or doesn't it matter ?
Once the sheet is warm enough, do you just pull it out of the oven and bend it to the desired shape ?
If you had, for example, a piece 15" long that you wanted to bend into a roughly 3" deep, 9" long "U" shape, could you make an appropriate form, set the acrylic sheet on it, and put the whole thing into the oven and wait for the acrylic heat up and bend around the form ?

Thanks,

Matt

 

[I Found Nemo]

I put a peice of papertowel in an electric frying pan an put the arcrylic on it heated it up and bent it. I heats up evenly and works really good

 

[240-Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6574171#post6574171 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mpomfret
Questions for 240-reefer:

Are the times you give a ball-park for 1/8th in thick acrylic, 1/4 in, or doesn't it matter ?
Once the sheet is warm enough, do you just pull it out of the oven and bend it to the desired shape ?
If you had, for example, a piece 15" long that you wanted to bend into a roughly 3" deep, 9" long "U" shape, could you make an appropriate form, set the acrylic sheet on it, and put the whole thing into the oven and wait for the acrylic heat up and bend around the form ?

Thanks,

Matt

I bend overflows for a guy and he sells them this is ver close time on 1/4" I have a sheet of aluminum I put them on and preheat the oven. I take it out of the oven and put it on my mold I made for the shape I need. as it cools use oven mitts and go back and forth on it to work it in to shape for a few min. try to make an overbend as it springs back. It is a fin line between to much heat a not enough so watch it from 20 min on. Good luck. :thumbsup:

 

[mpomfret]

Great. Thanks. I'll give it a shot soon. I need to make an overflow for my 75 gal tank.

Maybe I'll use the aluminum sheets that my wife uses for making shortbread. That ought to spin her up more than using her jam jars to clean bearings for my bicycle wheels :^)

 

[240-Reefer]

OH-YEA Note: Acrylic Will Shrink
for every 6" it will shrink 1/8" apx.

 

[adam_not4u]

This is probably a stupid ques. but why not use cut pieces and weld-on them together and use a round of bit in the router?

If done right the bond will be stronger than the rest of it.
(got pist and slammed down a project and only the bonded pieces stayed together)

 

[spence15610]

Thanks for all the great info. I used the oven method and it worked great.

Thanks again
Chris

 

[xdusty6920]

what can you actually use to cut acrylic?i know they sell those cheapo knives that you "score" (sp?) the cut and then just snap it but in my experience they dont work unless your using super thin acrylic. ive also tried using jigsaws and a rotozip but the blade heated the acrylic and it welded itself together as soon as a cut through.

 

[240-Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6579445#post6579445 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adam_not4u
This is probably a stupid ques. but why not use cut pieces and weld-on them together and use a round of bit in the router?

If done right the bond will be stronger than the rest of it.
(got pist and slammed down a project and only the bonded pieces stayed together)

when you bend (a overflow lets say) it is much stronger. the weight of the water puts a boat load of preasure on the acrylic. a rounded overflow (one piece)is much stronger the a square one (two pieces).

 

[hilexx116]

melevs website has a whole page on overflows if you haven't checked it out yet its good reading.

http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/overflow.html