How to bend Plastic

This video segment will show you how to bend plastic using the BriskHeat Strip Heater.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• how-to
• instructional
• tap
• plastics
• bend
• acrylic
• briskheat
• strip
• heater
• bending
• plastic

[hyacinthdibley]

Hello I love your tutorials. I am trying to make a (wear-on not necessarily a snap-on) case for my 17 inch hp laptop. I haven't been able to find a non cloth case for it.

Anyway, do you think acrylic is safe for a laptop case? (i'm guessing it is)

Also, does this machine work on acrylics?

thank you so much.

[tapplastics]

@hyacinthdibley What do you mean when you ask, 'is it safe for laptops'? Acrylic will pose no harm to a laptop. However, I don't see it as being a very durable or comfortable laptop case. If you dropped it, the acrylic would most likely crack. The alternative would be to use polycarbonate, which is virtually non-breakable. Both materials can be bent on a heat bender.

[sspamer]

That's cool, but be careful people. If the plastic breaks and you don't have gloves, your gonna get cut. I had a really bad cut once on my finger when working with plastic (it was my first time cutting plastic) and I thought I needed stiches, but the cut eventually healed, after about a week. I was lucky.

[tapplastics]

@sspamer Fortunately you weren't working with glass. That would have been worse.

[MatsNorway]

Works on lexan too?

will there be a discolorization?

[tapplastics]

Yes, you can bend Lexan (polycarbonate) on the line bender. However, it is prone to bubble if you leave it on the bender too long. It might take a little practice to perfect your technique.

[hyacinthdibley]

@tapplastics Thanks for the reply. Honestly, i'm not sure what i meant by 'is it safe?'. I didn't know acrylic would break if dropped, so thank you so much for that info. I'll have to find polycarbonate material to use for the project.

Thanks again!

[algeewiz]

I would like to bend pieces with a larger radius. Can you're bender be used on say a 10" radius?

[howmuchart]

I actually made a bender out of an old space heater. Already came with temp. control. I just placed the element in a U-channel i got for hardware store and caped it off with ceramic standoffs that came with the heater. Cost me next to nothing.

[tapplastics]

Our heat benders are available at our website.