best way to bend acrylic?

[jason the filter freak]

id ask naga about this personally but i know hes rather busy but hoping he may check in on this.

 

i need to bend a piece of probably 1/4" acrylic to match the arc and lenght of my 54 corner tank. it just needs to be a few inches tall.

 

i have a heat gun at my disposal im guessing thats the best way. so its bropaby going to be about 30" inches long about 3" tall i can bend the acrylic obviously but i need to have the acrylic to keep its bend on its own permanently

[Charlie]

According to http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_acrylic.php, they suggest:

In my opinion, a heat gun used for stripping paint ($25) works best when trying to bend acrylic. With a pencil, mark where you want to bend the Plexiglas. Place that line on an edge that you can bend it over. Then, with two people, one holding the heat gun and the other bending the acrylic, move the heat gun slowly, back and forth across the line. You won't have to heat both sides, just the outside. Stay far enough from the acrylic so that it doesn't melt or bubble. You can start out at 4 inches away and work your way towards the acrylic until you find a distance you find works best. When the Plexiglass gets soft, you will see it start to sag, but you will need to keep heating slowly. Don't rush this part. Gently, start bending the Plexiglas downward. When you get the desired bend, remove the heat, and hold it in place until it cools. If you want to speed this up you can either direct a fan on it, or drip water over the bent edge.

[Brian Ward]

I believe they typically recommend making a form to bend the acrylic over. Use the heat gun to heat it, as described, then lay the acrylic over the form and allow it to cool. I'm not really sure how you keep the melted acrylic from sticking to the form, but maybe that's not a problem?

[ctenophore]

Just lay the acrylic across the wooden cover and heat it uniformly with the heat gun. It should soften and fit the curve.

[Coral Hind]

You could heat it on something else and then lay it over the wooden cover to form and cool. That would prevent any heat damage to the wooden cover from the heat gun.

[ctenophore]

Good point. Maybe heat it on a towel and use the towel to pick it up and lay on wooden form. Be sure to use a cotton towel so the heat doesn't mess it up.

[zygote2k]

I bend lots of ABS at work using a wooden form and a heat gun. As long as you clamp the plastic to the form and heat evenly from the underside, it'll bend nicely. The trick is to getting it hot enough that the weight of the plastic will bend itself when it gets fluid enough.

[jason the filter freak]

Hmmm wonder if I could safely heat on the front glass of my tank? If I laid the tank on its back and used the front glass as my curve since thats more or less what i want it to match anyhow

[zygote2k]

use wood. glass might dissipate the heat or might shatter or even heat the silicone seal- probably not a good idea. you could always try it and see what happens.

[flowerseller]

I use a heat gun to bend stuff as large as 12" wide.

What are you trying to do that you need to heat and bend?

[Coral Hind]

I think you are over thinking this. Just heat it up and form it already. This shouldn't take long at all to do. I have used my electric stove burner to make simple bends like this. It is faster and heats a larger area then a heat gun. Once it becomes flexable place it on the form and bend it. In a few minutes it will be hard and formed.

[jason the filter freak]

going to be used for addational tank height to prevent splash with a standing wave in my tank

[flowerseller]

going to be used for addational tank height to prevent splash with a standing wave in my tank

 

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do a fine job and I hope it works.

[Grav]

Then comes the real trick... a standing wave in a corner bow?

[jason the filter freak]

Thats what I'm thinking/hoping a $400 some odd vortech better be freakin magic at that price.