amatur modding

id86 · Post by **id86** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:22 am

i want to ask something..mostly about acrylic

a) How to bend acrylic?i had read somewhere which stated that the acrylic need to be heated to bend it...so,if i want to bend acrylic at home,what tools that i need?can use candle?

b) I had seen some sites mention about UV acrylic. if i buy a piece of acrylic,then paint it with UV paint,can get same result like AC RYAN UV acrylic?

c) I want to make custom casing...want to ask,what material is the best? is it metal or alu or other material?

odie2190 · Post by **odie2190** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:37 pm

heat? dont get to close ull make it black or brown!

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:49 pm

A heat gun works great for bending acrylic, it take s some pretty constant heat to make quality bends............

id86 · Post by **id86** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:04 pm

yeah,i know about the heat gun. but now im talking about the home user. i think most houses dont have the heat gun right?

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:38 pm

I'm a home user and a have several, they are used for a few different hobbies for both the wife and myself.

id86 · Post by **id86** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:43 pm

oh i c...my home didnt have that thing.so i have to find other way to heat the acrylic...

odie2190 · Post by **odie2190** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:11 pm

FIRE!!!!!. buy a heat gun.

HONkUS · Post by **HONkUS** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:27 pm

take a coat hanger and bend it straight, hold it over your stove top and get it as hot as you can, have someone hold both ends of the coat hanger with pot holders on of course and then quickly lay the acrylic over the coat hanger but be careful not to let it touch the coat hanger. After a few moments (depending on how how the coat hanger is) the acrylic will start to bend along the line of the coat hanger, after you achieve the bend you want take it away from the hanger and let it cool.

And in the name of all things sacred BE CAREFUL! (unless you want a straight line brand on you)

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:13 pm

What thickness acrylic is this method good up to? I *heart* ghetto mods!

Dan

id86 · Post by **id86** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:13 pm

HONkUS wrote:take a coat hanger and bend it straight, hold it over your stove top and get it as hot as you can, have someone hold both ends of the coat hanger with pot holders on of course and then quickly lay the acrylic over the coat hanger but be careful not to let it touch the coat hanger. After a few moments (depending on how how the coat hanger is) the acrylic will start to bend along the line of the coat hanger, after you achieve the bend you want take it away from the hanger and let it cool.

And in the name of all things sacred BE CAREFUL! (unless you want a straight line brand on you)

i really didnt get what you mean...

how hot actually necessary so that the acrylic will bend?

do u have some pic for the process u said?

KnightRid · Post by **KnightRid** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:33 am

heat gun

spend the money to do it right ;)

Mike

oh and watch how tight of a bend you do - lets jsut say *snap* is a bad sound

umm..someone i know did that, yea I knnooowww them

id86 · Post by **id86** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:16 am

KnightRid wrote:heat gun

spend the money to do it right ;)

Mike

oh and watch how tight of a bend you do - lets jsut say *snap* is a bad sound

umm..someone i know did that, yea I knnooowww them

actually i want to save some money to buy other stuff which more important rather than to buy the heat gun. so i have to reduce the process cost by doing it in traditional way.

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:20 am

To form plexy and acrylic I have heated it up in the oven at 150* for a minute or so to get it warm then bend it over a form.

Practice, you can bubble it and it will discolor.

Alathald · Post by **Alathald** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:23 am

bubba wrote:To form plexy and acrylic I have heated it up in the oven at 150* for a minute or so to get it warm then bend it over a form.

Practice, you can bubble it and it will discolor.

Thats a good idea, how sharp of a angle can you acheive? I may rig up a ghetto vacumm table mod in the future, see how that would work...

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:06 am

any angle, but you have to have a radius in the corner. Go as big as your design will allow.

A vac setup will work the best, but practice no matter what way you go with. Go with Murphy on this as nothing works 100% right out of the gate.

Heat gun or oven, the work time from the time the heat is off and you start bending and shaping is relative to the temp your working in. you will have more work time if your in a 90* room vrs. a 60* room.

Guess what I'm saying is buy extra materials and play until you have the warm fuzzies and then make your final part.

id86 · Post by **id86** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:07 pm

let see if the temp in the oven is too hot, is the acrylic will melt? how long it will take to harden it back?

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:41 pm

soon as its cool, but you don't heat it until it melts, just long enough to get it to bend.

moon111 · Post by **moon111** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:54 pm

Buy the heat gun. They're always useful for other uses to like paint stripping etc. Never fear about buying a tool you need. You will more then likely use it again in the future.

odie2190 · Post by **odie2190** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:53 pm

plus u can burn ur friends!!!

ima pyro btw.

id86 · Post by **id86** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:12 am

i have to consider many things before buy the heat gun...besides,the heat gun maybe will be use only for modding.so,not so economical to have it...