Can anyone bend acrylic for me?

[robertsig]

I am building two Nanocade kits purchased here:
http://nanocade.com/

The project is going good but I cannot heat bend to save my life.  I already messed up one control panel doing it and have to order another.

Is anyone able to heat bend a piece of acrylic for me to 90 degrees for a fee?  If so, please PM me.

The end result should look like the 4th and 5th pic on this page:
http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepnanocade.htm

It looks easy, but apparently I am heat-bending challenged.

[RandyT]

The key to bending acrylic is very localized heat at the bend line, and enough so that it just freely moves, but not so much that it sags or droops where it shouldn't, or worse, bubbles and burns.

What was the issue you encountered? 

BTW, almost all plastic shops have proper benders, and probably won't charge you much to do it.  If you have one in your area, you should give them a call before sending it to someone else on the internet.

[robertsig]

I guess I need to find one then.  Not sure what to look up in the yellow pages.

[jasonbar]

I bent some polycarbonate recently for a non-arcade project.

1st, I took a piece of sheet metal & bent it to the shape I wanted to make a tool.

Then, I removed the protective backing sheets only from the area where I wanted to bend the plastic.  If your plastic doesn't have its protective backing sheets from the factory, then slap on some masking tape to insulate the parts you don't want to bend.

I used a cheap heat gun (from American Science & Surplus, I think), heated the plastic a while, then manually bent it (wearing leather gloves to protect my fingertips).  I removed the heat & held the plastic in place till it cooled.

That's about it.  It took a few tries to get the results I wanted.  You might want to overbend your tool a little, as there will be some spring-back of the plastic.



Thanks,
-Jason

[RandyT]

I guess I need to find one then.  Not sure what to look up in the yellow pages.

Plastic Fabricators, or just Plastics.  It might take a couple of calls, but they are pretty common businesses and can usually be found in most small cities or larger towns.  The local sign shop might be able to help you as well, if they do plastic signs.

[Nephasth]

If you've got an old toaster oven laying around you can try this.

[RandyT]

If you've got an old toaster oven laying around you can try this.

If you want to make your own, an old style battery charger and ni-chrome wire works as well.  Less chance of killing yourself, too!

[Nephasth]

Less chance of killing yourself, too!

It's just a matter of having a little common sense and some respect for electricity...

[RandyT]

It's just a matter of having a little common sense and some respect for electricity...

It's simply harder to die with 12vDC

[clutch]

I can bend it with my mind.  There is no acrylic.

[DNA Dan]

A radiant type heater such as a heat gun or toaster element are easier to use for this. I tried it with a blowtorch before, and lets just say it's like burning a marshmallow.

[robertsig]

I tried a heat gun.  It bent, but bent wrong.  I'm still not sure how people can target heat to a 2mm thick line, but kudos to those who can.

At this point, I don't mind paying for it.

[DNA Dan]

I think it's pretty impossible to only heat a 2mm line. The heat is going to spread no matter how thin you apply it. The bending is all in the technique. They probably use a very good form and support the plexi with flat wood. Then make the bend by "creasing" it against a form. You just have to have the right setup to do it right, which isn't cheap. So you're probably better off going to a plastics store like TAP or something locally.

[RandyT]

I think it's pretty impossible to only heat a 2mm line.

Sort of.  Some of the better benders use a movable "heat mask" creating whatever size window for the element you want.  There is a physical limit to the radius of a bend (without distortion), based on the thickness of the material.  So a 2mm aperture of heat is probably not going to be enough to make a nice bend on thicker material anyway.