Bending Plastic Sheet With Heat Gun

Polystyrene is used to form a shell around your mold.

Bending plastic sheet with heat gun.

We recommend the thickest because the finished product will be a lot firmer. Ideal for perspex acrylic plexiglass polycarbonate. Heating is a slow process in order to make sure that you get a straight bend in the acrylic. To create bends for small scale projects in plexiglass perspex or acrylic 1 8 inch and thinner you can use a small torch butane kitchen torches work well a paint stripping heat gun or an embossing heat tool which is a wand that works very similarly to a paint stripping gun but using a smaller more directed heat flow with a smaller fan.

Forming a radius can also be done by using a heat gun using a back and forth motion across the length of the sheet both top and bottom until the material is soft enough to start bending. Testing a heat gun as method for bending plexiglass. You can use the 1mm but you have to be more cautious in the heating process and your finished product will be less firm. Prepare your heat gun for bending the acrylic.

After a few passes rotate the pipe so a different side of the same section is heated. Tutorial for how to. If you want to use polystyrene you have 2 options. The only way to truly fuse them together with any lasting effort is by using high heat.

You can see this in the video below. Testing a heat gun as method for bending plexiglass. Make your pressure on the acrylic as even as possible while you push. Repeat this process until the material has softened to an acceptable level.

A heat gun or a plastic welding kit a. Hold the heat gun 3 to 4 inches above the pvc and move it side to side along the pipe about 12 inches depending on the size of the bend you hope to achieve. Keep the gun at a distance of at least 8 to 12 do not get the heat too close to the material as blistering may occur. Only that the operator is now forced to move the heat gun constantly along the bend line and flip over the polycarbonate sheet to ensure both sides get heated.

Here s a video showing my procedure for bending plexiglass with a heat gun. Preparing hot air gun w. This includes any plastic made from high density polyethylene hdpe and polypropylene pp. Use the spare piece of flat scrap wood to push the acrylic back and down while you aim the heat gun at the acrylic.

Once glue is applied its bond is really only temporary.