Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. When you have your sheet at the correct angle or have bent the curve you want (for a window or the front of a curved bakery case, which may not be at 90 degrees Fahrenheit), hold the plastic gently in place for a few seconds until it sets up again. Abraham specializes in both small to medium residential and commercial sized jobs, ranging from TV mounting to furniture assembly to home automation setup. If you need it to be angled, then make sure the line runs at the correct angle. The distance and speed will be different depending on the thickness of the material you are working with. Gather the supplies you need in order to bend the acrylic with a heat gun. Most scale models won't need bends in acrylic more than 1/16 inch thick. If you plan on creating a piece of furniture, consider the area where you intend to put it. Handyman. Remember to trace both sides of your newly bent acrylic, as they may not be the exact same shape and size. The strip wood will restrict the application of heat (it will catch fire if you overheat the wood) and will prevent the plastic beneath it from becoming soft enough to bend. Leave it at 90 degrees to cool down for a couple minutes, and you have successfully bent an acrylic! Be very careful while bending the acrylic and cutting your side pieces, as the acrylic glue requires perfect seams in order set correctly. Other methods for bending acrylic include drape forming, cold bending, free blown forming, and thermoforming. Alex walks us through preparing, bending, and working with PETG and Acrylic tubing. Use the spare piece of flat scrap wood to push the acrylic back and down while you aim the heat gun at the acrylic. The photo below shows a test strip of sheet acrylic that did not bend evenly along the line of the jig. Remove the pins from between the joints as you apply the cement. These benders are compatible with plastics such as acrylic, polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, PVC, CPVC, ABS, and Kydex. Prior to starting Fixin’ To Do, Abraham worked for over 10 years as a handyman for third party services and had a lifetime of learning how to improve houses. Use acrylic cement to glue the back piece of acrylic to the bottom piece. Place it in the vise grip at one end of the bend and shape the tubing with pliers. This is the same strip shown in the jig where the heat was applied too far away from the bend line and applied unevenly. unlocking this expert answer. It is far easier to bend the long end of a plastic strip than the short end. Do not remove the acrylic from the jig until it has cooled, or it might lose its new shape. The heat from the rod, will help keep the acrylic/petg soft enough to bend. Abraham Schwartz is a handyman and the owner of Fixin’ To Do, a home improvement service in Austin, Texas. Hold the bent acrylic rod in position for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then release pressure. Polycarbonate is a better choice for highly demanding applications. Support wikiHow by Make sure that your line exactly follows the shape you desire. For example, you might adhere two pieces of scrap wood together at a 90-degree angle along their long sides if you want your acrylic bent in that shape. Never heat acrylic in a kitchen oven. This method works well for larger bends, but there is a greater risk of melting or scorching the plastic. To minimize bowing, restrict the width of the heated area or, v-groove the sheet along the desired bend line, as shown below. 99 Then, aim a heat gun at the point on the acrylic you want to bend. To cool it down, just pore some water into the metal tube. Abraham Schwartz is a handyman and the owner of Fixin’ To Do, a home improvement service in Austin, Texas. If you have basic carpentry & power tool skills you should have no trouble building your own beautiful Acrylic tank. If you are singeing the wood on your jig, you are too close. You may need tools such as a ruler or other measuring stick, a square, a compass, or a protractor to find these dimensions. There are 19 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This can cause fumes to gather in the oven and eventually ignite. Using these instructions, a modeler can bend anything from paperweight sheets of acrylic, up to 1/8 inch thick material, in sizes suitable for most miniature projects. You can make bends of all types in very thin sheet acrylic, provided you work out the heat and time required for bending thin material and do not pass that point. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. As it heats up, you can use your fingers to gently bend the acrylic upward. Bake and Set the Timer. 8. Take your time and be patient, bending the acrylic gently so it doesn't crack. Lay your plastic on your heat-safe work surface and place a scrap of strip wood over your plastic roughly 1/4 of an inch in front of where you want your bend to be. Building an Acrylic Aquarium by Brad Newton Building your own Acrylic tank is a rewarding, cost saving, and enjoyable project. Acrylic is one of the frequently-used plastic plates in the market at present, so people call the device which can bend the acrylic into shapes “Acrylic Bending Machine”. Clamp the acrylic to a work table, and proceed to turn the gun on and heat up the piece of acrylic, using a steady back-and-forth sweeping motion. You could also use clamps, if you have your jig set up on a table surface with room to apply the clamps. Set the jig aside until you need it. Make sure any flammable or heat-sensitive material on your clamps is well away from where you will be applying heat to your plexiglass. Use the circular or table saw for this process. Plexiglass bending machine is a useful tool for softening and bending acrylic, organic glass, plexiglass, pvc, pc ,ABS, pp sheet into shapes. This resulted in an angled rather than a straight bend against the jig. Hold the section of tubing you want to bend about 3 inches over the flame of a propane torch. Bend the acrylic to match the angle of the jig. Let the cement dry for four hours before proceeding to the next step. Across a wider section of material, even heat application would be difficult to achieve without causing the material to warp. Unlock expert answers by supporting wikiHow, http://makezine.com/2013/02/06/workshop-wednesday-heat-bending-acrylic-enclosures/, http://hackaday.com/2013/02/07/heating-bending-and-gluing-to-make-acrylic-enclosures/, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jig, http://www.technologystudent.com/joints/desk17.htm, http://www.plaskolite.com/Fabrication/Acrylic/Forming, https://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infacrylic.html, consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow, Sheet of acrylic large enough for your needs, A heat gun, which is an electrical tool that heats and softens a variety of materials, Cutting tools, such as a Dremel saw, circular saw, table saw, and/or razor knife, Chinagraph pencil, also known as a grease pencil, or permanent marker. Heating something like a metal tube in the oven, then carefully heat up the acrylic/petg as well. Abraham specializes in both small to medium residential and commercial sized jobs, ranging from TV mounting to furniture assembly to home automation setup. When oven is at 300, place the plastic on a piece of aluminum foil on the … He holds both his TSBPE Plumbing Examiners and Electrical Apprentice (TX) Licenses. Step 3 - Cut Out and Bend New Windshield. The acrylic glue requires at least five minutes to set, so it is recommended to clamp the enclosure together to help it set correctly. Do not assume that both sides are the exact same shape. Some types of sheet acrylic are sold as heat withstanding, or plastic which can be embossed from stamp and scrapbook stores. The bend is kinked, not even, and is too far away from the jig, so it is not straight and square with the end of the material. A strip heater, which is a tool that has a heating element along the length of it and rests on which to lay the material you want to heat so that they are not directly on the intense heating element, Sheet of acrylic that is large enough for your needs, A jig, which is a box or frame meant for holding a material and guiding a machine tool to the material. "The information was explained very simply and had useful pictures.". The objective is to heat the plastic evenly along a line just in front of the straight edge of your clamped jig. This is where you can use the circular or table saw, if you are cutting a jig. You must wait until the moment when you feel the material "slump" as you have no way of measuring the heat. This article was co-authored by Abraham Schwartz. By using The Spruce Crafts, you accept our, Bending Before the Material Is Soft Enough, Making Even Bends in Paper-Thin Acrylic or Plastic Sheet With a Simple Jig, Miniature Water Features from Sheet Plastic, How to Use E-Z Water to Make Water Features for Miniature Models, How to Make Louvered Doors and Window Shutters, Making Corrugated Metal for Scale Buildings, How to Make Perfect Box Joints With a Table Saw Jig, How to Make Handmade Hinges for Miniature Projects, Modeling and Sculpting Tools for Miniaturists, How to Make a Heating Pad for Aches and Cramps, How to Use Shrink Plastic for Rubber Stamping Crafts, Building a Jointer Jig for Your Table Saw. If you need to make further bends, let the first bend cool before continuing so you don't lose it. Expert Interview. It is important to trace each side of the bent acrylic. You must use two hands to do this with even pressure, or your material will twist slightly as you bend it unless you are working with a very thin, narrow strip. To make side pieces, trace the sides of your newly-bent acrylic onto a flat piece and cut them out with a saw. You can use the same heat tool you use to bend plastic, to seal and neaten the cut edges of any plastic parts. We bend a lot of acrylic plexiglass for different household projects. Acrylic PVC Plastic Strip Heater 110V Bending Machine 24 Inch 60cm Manual Hot Heating Bender Tool 1mm-6mm Thickness for Sign Making 4.5 out of 5 stars 9 $99.99 $ 99 . As the acrylic heats up, move the heat gun from side to side and steadily push on it with a piece of scrap wood to help it bend. You will use it to push on the acrylic while it is heated. What can I use if I don't have a heat gun? This will be somewhat determined by the thickness of your plastic, as thicker plastic will need a wider radius curve for most bends. How to bend Acrylic/Perspex: The best way to bend acrylic is to use a strip heater with an element running between two watercooled tubes, preferably made from stainless steel. The Chinagraph pencil markings can be removed later. It may be helpful to clamp the acrylic in place while it is being heated so that only the marked area is heated and the sheet of acrylic does not move. Using your strip heater or heat gun, turn to the optimum temperature needed to bend acrylic at a thickness. Be sure to leave it close by and easily accessible. In the sense of the principle, it can bend the acrylic into shapes by heating and softening the plates. Moving it while it is still warm and flexible will cause it to lose the bend. Set the flat piece of scrap wood on top of the acrylic to keep it in place in the jig while it cools, so that it forms to the correct angle. To set up your plastic or acrylic sheet to bend simple curves for your miniature and model projects, first remove the protective covering from the material you wish to bend. Run your heat tool gently back and forth along a cut plastic edge to soften it just enough that it turns clear. The reason this works is because acrylic plastic actually melts at 405 F. Tips If the area to bend is on an outer curve or bend, or if you want to create a tighter corner, try using a frying pan on LOW heat to hold the plastic area to bend. Note that the acrylic will likely bend slowly at first. To do so, pass your heat source at an even, slow speed along the line of plastic in front of the jig, keeping it far enough away that the heat source will not singe your wood jig. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Grab both ends of the acrylic rod; when the rod starts to bend, turn off the temperature controller and apply force with your gloved hands to bend the softened acrylic rod. Heating up a metal strip/wire with an iron can simulate a strip heater as shown in Method 2 of the article. Acrylic isn’t very strong and experiences brittle failure, meaning it cracks immediately without much bending. Allow it to cool still clamped in the jig as shown. Using your template as a guideline on the piece of acrylic, sketch out the new windshield design and use the saber saw to carefully cut it out. Then, set the acrylic into the jig so that it will form to that angle as it cools. It will be helpful to allow each bend to completely cool before going on to the next bend so that you do not lose the initial bend. Use a syringe filled with acrylic cement to insert the cement into the joint. Hold the sheet material evenly with both hands (both in protective gloves) and push the sheet up gently bending it against the line of the jig as shown in the photo above. These tubes should be adjustable so that the gap between the two tubes can be increased or decreased depending upon the thickness of material that you are bending. To Bend Acrylic Sheet You Will Need: Heat Source – Small projects with bends that are close together will need upon heat source which can be easily aimed at small areas. These types of plastic will not bend when heat is applied. Abraham Schwartz. Use a ruler to check that your sheet of plexiglass or plastic is held squarely clamped beneath your strip wood jig. It has a very clean look, is easily cut (dremel, table saw, scroll saw, band saw, to name a few), and is durable. Just be sure that you have the necessary tools and supplies for your chosen method, and you will be on your way to mastering this craftsman skill. Move the hair dryer slowly and gently along the fold line and make sure that it’s evenly heated. If you find bubbles or scorch marks occurring in your test bends, move your heat a bit faster along your bend line or hold it farther away from the surface of your sheet material. Try to keep the heat source at a right angle to your sheet of plastic/plexiglass. Before you bend acrylic, set it between 2 pieces of scrap wood and clamp them together with a vice. For tips on how to bend acrylic with a strip heater and how to determine dimensions when bending acrylic, read on! Place a sheet between the heating bars to soften it. Once heated it will bend easily. Only keep the acrylic on the strip heater long enough for it to become flexible, at which point it is ready for you to bend. Cut out the side pieces using a Dremel saw or a razor knife. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/3\/3e\/Bend-Acrylic-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Bend-Acrylic-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/3\/3e\/Bend-Acrylic-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid4719217-v4-728px-Bend-Acrylic-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"