[TriEmbed] Acrylic Bending

[Shane Trent]

Adam,

Bending acrylic is not hard if you build or can get access to a heater. I
thew together a bender something like the one on this page and had great
results. The only part I did not have in my parts bin was the nichrome/rene
wire. The annealing has to do with reducing post bending stress to prevent
future crazing or cracking. I never annealed but only saw micro-cracks
where I had mounted push-in RGB LEDs in laser cut holes and those cracks
were not visible unless you picked it up and were looking for them. I think
the cracks came from the plasticizer in the LEDs because I have never seen
cracks anywhere else in cut or bent acrylic. I believe you can also bend
ABS using the same setup.


http://www.wa4dsy.com/robot/hot-wire-plastic-bender

Nichrome wire had helpful tables for picking the desired temp and then
helping you get the right gauge for your application so you can reach the
target current for your wire length and power supply voltage.
http://jacobs-online.biz/nichrome_wire.htm

Better wire than Nichrome (last longer, stronger) but less design
information. Design using Nichrome tools then translate to pick the best
Rene for the design.
http://jacobs-online.biz/rene_wire.htm

Shane

On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Adam Haile via TriEmbed <
triembed at triembed.org> wrote:

> I know I've talked to someone here about this before... does anyone have
> to tools and skill to custom bend acrylic? I know you generally just do it
> with some NiChrome wire, but I'm sure there's a bit of an art to it and I
> vaguely remember something about having to anneal it afterward? Either way,
> I'd rather find someone who knows what they are doing.
>
> My wife would like some clear/white acrylic display stands to put on some
> existing shelves so she can have multiple display levels on the same main
> shelf. We've looked around and they to make things like what she wants, but
> they are all either exorbitantly expensive or not the right size.
> Basically, what she needs is something about 3" high, 4" deep, and 30"
> wide. Those aren't the exact dimensions, and the width could be split up if
> need be. Anyone here thing that would be doable?
>
>
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-- 
A blog about some of my projects.  http://fettricks.blogspot.com/
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