Does anyone know where I can get a plastic/acrylic bender?

[Vitor Brito]

I’m the proud owner of a laser engraver aswell.
This might not help you, things maybe a bit diferent over there but i found the acrilic benders available here a bit expensive for the dimensions they had and for what they really are in fact it’s only a resistance. Soo i decided to build one (90 cms), just waiting for the arrival of a proper transformer made by order to assemble everything. 😉

I would be interested in see the prices in UK anyway to see if it was cheaper there. If you have any info or links i would be glad to check them. Thx.

I couldn’t help you this time, but in my short experience with lasers if you find anyway i can help you, just shout. 😉

By the way, wich laser have you purchased?

Cheers
Vitor Brito

[Robert Lambie]

http://www.crclarke.co.uk/Products/Products.htm

http://www.awltech.co.uk

i think grafityp do 24inch ones also…

http://www.grafityp.co.uk/

[Carlos Cavanagh]

Yea, Clake has a good many products. Also Google “Strip heaters” acrylic for all kinds of information.
UK units tend to use nichrome wire heating elements which I like better. US units tend to use calrods.
They’re also quite easy to make.
Strip bending takes a little practice with thin gauges but gets to be an art with the thicker .250″ and up acrylics.
An excellent source for messing with acrylics is the Cyro knowledge Center ubder line bending.
http://cyro.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/cyro.c … td_alp.php

[Martin Forsyth]

Thanks guys 😀

(you don’t know how much time I wasted trying to find that sort of info)

Cheers

Martin

[Martin Forsyth]

Oh, it’s an Epilog Mini – just the entry level 25w system with the rotary attachment too.

[Vitor Brito]

quote AcryliCo:

UK units tend to use nichrome wire heating elements which I like better. US units tend to use calrods.

I’ve been told soo, that’s why i’m building a nichrome unit, mainly coz of iomic resistance (not sure if proper term in English), but that also brings a small problem the nichrome resistance is very small soo in order to make a safe machine you’ll need to reduce tension to 12V/24V or at least 48V minimum, and that’s why i asked for a transformer made exactly to my specs (a bit more expensive then standart ones).

Martin, I’d say you to check this nichrome versus calrods issue prior to purchase your bender.

[Martin Forsyth]

Ok Vitor – thanks 🙂

[Carlos Cavanagh]

If you’re doing thin gauge acrylic you’re far better off with wire because you can get really close to the acrylic and do localized heat that won’t distort the edges.
We do thick gauge and we built three strip benders: one is calrod, one is quartz (at us$320.00 a rod it aint cheap) which heats and cools very fast, and the third is ceramic. We bought a bunch of parts from Formech in the UK and arranged the elements in rows so we can do differential heating to obtain radiuses.
We got a little wild with the machines we built. They’re adjustable, work only with timers so you don’t toast the material while you get distracted, have pneumatic arms to heat top and bottom and strobes to let you know when you’re done. I’d upload a pic but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet 😳
On all the machines we use the Formech controllers which at us$32.00 are a bargain and they don’t need feedback from a sensor. Beats me how they work but they’re great!

[Carlos Cavanagh]

One other thing that’s crucial with strip heaters is blocking out the parts that you don’t want to heat.
We’ve been looking for a material that is rigid and won’t transmit heat to no avail. What do you use for this?
Currently we buy drop ceiling tiles and bond them to very thin oak plywood. They work well but there has to be something better!

[Vitor Brito]

quote AcryliCo:

I’d upload a pic but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet

That would be great!!
(Bottom of reply page, u’ll find Add an attachement … just choose your file/picture location and press Add attachment and submit.
Just need to beware of File Specs:
Allowed Extension Groups and their Sizes
Images -> Maximum Upload Size: 1 MB
bmp gif jpeg jpg png tga tif

As i haven’t assembled the parts i already have, and altought i’m building a simple line bender for light use, i would like to see more solutions either to prevent mistakes and even for future reference. 😉

Thx

[Vitor Brito]

About heated parts:

As i’m building a 90 cms only i’ll be using 2 polished granite plates (it’ll be sitting in a bench soo weight isn’t problem) made by a friend and using an aluminium rail in between them (couldn’t found a ceramic one so thin as 8 mm) any way i’ll be using ceramic washers to space aluminium from bottom parts.

But yeah i’d like to find a better solution. 😀

Vitor Brito

[Carlos Cavanagh]

Oooo Got it!

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Attachments:

[Carlos Cavanagh]

This is the ceramic

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Attachments:

[Vitor Brito]

They look good.

If i remenber, you said you produced yacht windshiels do you use any kind of mold to make them equal everytime?

I haven’t tried complex curves yet with acrilic and info nearby isn’t available that’s something else i’d like to have a bit more info.
If you had a website i’d like to take a look, altought i know it’s against board rules to post it and probably you can’t PM me 😕 .

Cheers
Vitor Brito

[Carlos Cavanagh]

We use these to make center console windshields with pretty tight bends. We heat them and transfer them to a simple mold that just holds them together until they cool and they’re consistent.
We do a lot of one-way and complex curves (compound) but that’s a whole other issue, done with different molds for simple curves and high temp epoxy and vacuum for radical compounds. We choose between about four different molding systems so it gets complicated.
If you tell me what you want to achieve I can walk you through it pretty easily.
We don’t have an operational website yet but will pretty soon.

[Vitor Brito]

Thx, i’ll certainly go after your knowledge after having assembled my machine, and when starting to find that i can’t do everything i’m hoping. 😀 But that we’ll be another thread i think.

Thx again for all your tips.

Vitor Brito

[Carlos Cavanagh]

:wow: Granite????
We stay away from aluminum because it transfers heats so fast.
Saw a program on TV years ago about this foam like material that you could heat with a blowtorch and hold immediately afterwards. Something like a space shuttle heat tile. Googled it to death but found nahthin’

[Vitor Brito]

That was a cheap and more or less reliable solution that i found… till yesterday, when i got to my friend’s shop and grabed one of those plates, i think i’ll be on the market for a diferent solution monday morning. : 😀
Altought weight wasn’t a problem I found it a bit extreme. :lol1:

I’m using aluminium mainly coz i couldn’t find a stainless steel or other material then iron with the required profile and i want it to be durable. any sugestions or tips on this matter?

[Carlos Cavanagh]

Did you check the http://www.cyro.com TechKnowlogy Center?
If you insert line bending in the search about 5 papers will come up – they’re very interesting.
They seem to think that with thin gauge you don’t need shielding materials and use ceiling tile or aluminum for the base.
What they don’t tell you is that as you get thicker you need to shield the material on both sides of the heater, and there has to be no gap whatsoever because if the heat gets in you get those distortions. It’s also a good idea to use ceiling tile or something on the ends of the bend because the heat generated under the piece that you want to form escapes out of the ends and tends to heat the material more, so when you bend you get a fluting effect.
I’m sure that if you’re doing thin stuff up to .125″ you should have no problems whatsoever.