Bending Acrylic

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H

hrigg

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
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217
Location
Spokane, WA.
Does anyone have experience they'd like to share? I've done several laminations of bent wood, usually cut about 1/8" thick, but that has always involved soaking in water to make the wood pliable. What are ways to accomplish the same thing with strips of acrylic...heat? Steam? Water by itself would probably not work. Can I just cut thin strips off an acrylic pen blank, or do I need something different?

Thank you for any help you can give me.
 
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Probably a similar process to straightening bowling ball blanks in the oven. I have not done it myself, but I think a search for "bowling ball blanks" here on this site might yield some info...
 
It has been a while but I have bent sheets up to 12 inches wide by heating carefully with a torch. So it does take heat. I don't think boiling it will be enough heat.

With a torch, keep it moving and don't let the direct flame touch the acrylic; heat slowly but steady along a line at the point where it is to be bent.
 
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Many of the tobacco pipe makers use a heat gun to bend acrylic stems. It works well as long as you keep the piece of acrylic moving and heat it slowly and over a wide area. If the heat is concentrated in one area, of coarse it will bend only in that one location and you won't get a smooth form.
 
I have used my wifes skillet set to med with a piece of high temp baking paper. I just place the skillet on the burner placed the sheet of baking paper down and placed the strip of acrylic on the spot that I needed to bend. Once the "heat line" warmed up the piece of acrylic slowly fell over, I removed it and finished bending it to the angle I needed. No too hard to do with a small strip of the acrylic......
 
Thank you very much for all the ideas. I don't have a torch, but I have a heat gun and my wife has a skillet. I can see a plan shaping up.
 
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