LCE and Perspex - Again!

[muns]

Can you do 3 for me? Excelent.

 

[DoctorM]

............How do you bend 3mm Perspex.

It's normally done over a former in a purpose-made oven.
I'm not sure what temperature is required as the oven I've seen only had an on/off control , so was presumably pre-set to the required temperature.

If I was doing it in a domestic over at home I'd experiment with some off-cuts at various temperatures till I found the right one. You might be able to do it with a hair dryer or a heat gun, but I've never tried it.

 

[Dtsteam]

I've never tried it, but ch. 9 of this manual might be helpful
http://www.theplasticshop.co.uk/plastic_technical_data_sheets/working_with_perspex_manual.pdf

 

[Tony]

Second carriage shell completed today.....only three more to go. As for the motor units, tried the perspex in boiling warer today, after 5 minutes it was still brittle and unbendable. Might try it for couple of hours next time.
Still open to ideas?

Roly Perspex or platicard etc has to be heated evenly across the whole surface so a stable oven temp is required if any part is a different temp it will warp when it cools if you are trying to bend in more than one dimension eg a bowl shape it is impossible with out vacforming over a mold .....Depending on what you want and how clear it has to be you might get away with fibre glass resin

Tony

 

[nicebutdim]

In GCSE tech I used one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hotline-M...208?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item439ccb74b0 < Link To http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm...mp;hash=item439ccb74b0 (or similar to it). Bit expensive though. It may be worth looking to see if there are any specialists near you who work with perspex or acrylic and see if they can either bend it for you or (doubtful) let you near their equipment.
You have to be very careful when heating it as there is a fine line between it becoming 'bendable' and it either changing colour or beginning to bubble on the surface.

 

[Tony]

Those benders do work but you can only do straight bends or "folds" a bit like a "Press brake" will do when working with metal.. but this you can do by clamping your plastic between 2 bits of wood with clamps and heating (not to high) in an ovan. i used that way forming the roof and sides of some coaches i made for my HST 125.. i used a sheet clamped between flat board and a wooden broom handle heated in a closed oven for 10mins at 140 then pulled the sides around the broom handle to get the curve between the sides and roof

 

[mike]

a very nice conversion ..may be you could offer intrestedpartys a conversion kit

 

[playmofire]

Excellent workmanship and result.

 

[Netty]

Those benders do work but you can only do straight bends or "folds" a bit like a "Press brake" will do when working with metal.. but this you can do by clamping your plastic between 2 bits of wood with clamps and heating (not to high) in an ovan. i used that way forming the roof and sides of some coaches i made for my HST 125.. i used a sheet clamped between flat board and a wooden broom handle heated in a closed oven for 10mins at 140 then pulled the sides around the broom handle to get the curve between the sides and roof

Sorry to go slightly off thread but "HST"!!! G scale? are there piccys?

The "LCE" is looking SO much better with real windows, very tempting.

 

[Tony]

Not really its another one of those on the shelf projects but i have had it running then nicked the bogies for another project. heres the only photo i can find with the basic shape its a bit more advanced since then

 

[Netty]

That's brilliant too. Please post more when you do it please. That's not Winjand's old thingy bob is it? Don't forget the pespex windows (did you see how cleverly I got us back on topic), seemless.