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Anonymous
Guest
You need James.
I think acrylic can be bent fairly easily using heat, but I have no first hand experience bending it.
You could probably get your local plastics fabricator to build this for you. You would need to show more detail in your drawing. Might be a tad pricey, but getting the quote should be free.
How is this thing going to work?
Louey
I think acrylic can be bent fairly easily using heat, but I have no first hand experience bending it.
You could probably get your local plastics fabricator to build this for you. You would need to show more detail in your drawing. Might be a tad pricey, but getting the quote should be free.
How is this thing going to work?
Louey
This is Little James 
You need to get the heating stripe from plastic shop. You can also make it yourself with heating wire, but that's more than most DIYer want to do, and can be dangerous. It is about $15 to $35 depend on the length. Besides heating stripe, obvously you need acrylic, solvent cement, and acrylic cutter. For the "L" side piece, you probably want to use router to cut it.
If you are the macho type, you maybe able to bent the front and back pieces using heat gun by laying the acrylic on a piece of metal rod.
Die hard reefer bents thin acrylic using a power compact bulb <brag>. Yes, it is hot enough to get the job done, but you may want to make sure the acrylic does not stick to the bulb afterward... obvious James will never give this borderline advice like I do.
You need to get the heating stripe from plastic shop. You can also make it yourself with heating wire, but that's more than most DIYer want to do, and can be dangerous. It is about $15 to $35 depend on the length. Besides heating stripe, obvously you need acrylic, solvent cement, and acrylic cutter. For the "L" side piece, you probably want to use router to cut it.
If you are the macho type, you maybe able to bent the front and back pieces using heat gun by laying the acrylic on a piece of metal rod.
Die hard reefer bents thin acrylic using a power compact bulb <brag>. Yes, it is hot enough to get the job done, but you may want to make sure the acrylic does not stick to the bulb afterward... obvious James will never give this borderline advice like I do.
I use the $20 heat gun method. Lay it over the edge of the table and heat both sides until it bends over.
Then I sand the corner where it bends. For some reason the edges bulge out when I bend acrylic. If i don't sand the edges, there's a bump when I try to glue it together.
B
Then I sand the corner where it bends. For some reason the edges bulge out when I bend acrylic. If i don't sand the edges, there's a bump when I try to glue it together.
B
I have bent thin acrylic with a curling iron. It take a little time and a cutting board. Place the curling iron on the cutting board and turn on. Place acrylic over the iron. Put some wieght on both ends, not a lot and make one end lighter than the other. Get a drink. When the acrylic is warm enough it will start to droop. Complete the bend by hand and hold for a sec. I only tred it for 1/16th thickness. Works well for making brackets and such.
Fatal Morgana":3bzb7978 said:This is Little James
You need to get the heating stripe from plastic shop. You can also make it yourself with heating wire, but that's more than most DIYer want to do, and can be dangerous. It is about $15 to $35 depend on the length. Besides heating stripe, obvously you need acrylic, solvent cement, and acrylic cutter. For the "L" side piece, you probably want to use router to cut it.
If you are the macho type, you maybe able to bent the front and back pieces using heat gun by laying the acrylic on a piece of metal rod.
Die hard reefer bents thin acrylic using a power compact bulb <brag>. Yes, it is hot enough to get the job done, but you may want to make sure the acrylic does not stick to the bulb afterward... obvious James will never give this borderline advice like I do.
CK,
(You are CK, right?)
My local plastics shop carries a heating stripe, but it's in the 90 dollar range. Know any place online that sells them at the price you mentioned?
For the L shaped pieces, can I use a dremel tool to just round out the curve? It's not exactly critical that it's perfectly round.
FWIW, this is going to be siliconed to the back of a glass tank, to direct the water from some overflow teeth into a "sump" tank sitting directly behind it.
hi.
Locally, there are in the price range... check out usaplastics.com and see if they have it in the size you want. The shorter the stripe, the cheaper. You don't need the industrial type with metal encloure, get the flexible stripe that is like 1/4 the price, unless you think you will get into the business of making custom acrylic overflow.
Dremel the corner is fine. Make sure the curve is nice and round, since it can be where the stress point starts.
bye
Locally, there are in the price range... check out usaplastics.com and see if they have it in the size you want. The shorter the stripe, the cheaper. You don't need the industrial type with metal encloure, get the flexible stripe that is like 1/4 the price, unless you think you will get into the business of making custom acrylic overflow.
Dremel the corner is fine. Make sure the curve is nice and round, since it can be where the stress point starts.
bye
Hi Matt,
Try this one: http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=169&
It's by no means "pro quality" but for stuff like this - may be ideal.
Any partucular reason it *has* to be bent? Much easier and cheaper to glue it together. Just put a roundover on the "inner" ledge to get a more fluid flow.
Basically, make 2 "L" shaped pieces and glue them to each side and then just trim off the excess.
Sorry about my tardiness, swamptified at work.
HTH ?
James
Try this one: http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=169&
It's by no means "pro quality" but for stuff like this - may be ideal.
Any partucular reason it *has* to be bent? Much easier and cheaper to glue it together. Just put a roundover on the "inner" ledge to get a more fluid flow.
Basically, make 2 "L" shaped pieces and glue them to each side and then just trim off the excess.
Sorry about my tardiness, swamptified at work.
HTH ?
James
I have bent some mean stuff with just a heat gun and a counter's edge or clamps. Do it slow so your ACyrlic doesn't bubble and so you crack the stuff. Once you've got the are of the bend heated up spend most of your time keeping the stretching side (outer radius) of the acrylic hot with the heat gun. Makes for nice bends
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