Acrylic Bender

[Robert Walters]

I know many laser engrave/cut acrylic, thought you might find this PAIR of benders interesting.

I never saw them on ebay or amazon for a pair. Might be useful for other plastics as well.
I *think* the square he makes if foam board, I couldn't tell for sure.

Video (this guy must have asbestos hands):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QluHdelO2yg

Notice that he applies self-adhesive teflon cloth to one bender. This is the same stuff you use on impulse sealers to prevent sticking. Not sure if it would be need for acrylic work, but just something to keep in mind if you decide to get one.


$51 USD with free shipping, but doesn't state US Plug:
aliexpress DOT com/item/Arc-Shape-Bending-Tool-Acrylic-Letter-Bender-Angle-heat-Bender-AC-110v-220v-Acrylic-luminous-letter/1721605165.html



$63 USD shipped and DOES state US Plug:
aliexpress DOT com/item/Acrylic-Letter-Bender-Angle-heat-Bender-Arc-Shape-Bending-Tool-AC-110v-220v-Acrylic-luminous-letter/1613950286.html


More search results:
aliexpress DOT com/wholesale?SearchText=Acrylic+Letter+Bender+&catId=&initiative_id=SB_20140521000357


Sample photos, note the Non-US plug:
http://www.acrylicbender.net/Acrylic-Bender-Packing-Details.html

[Jiten Patel]

Pretty good - but they just look like hair straighteners that my wife uses - GHDs....?

[Clark Pace]

I usually make my own bend table, but this is interesting. Could be useful.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Errr I think they are Jit's Mrs hair straighteners!!

I'm off the blag the wifes GHD's, she will never notice :)

cheers

Dave

[Frank barry]

good luck with that Dave do let us know when you get caught

yes its looks like a hair straightener but the irons are a V shape I think

cheers Frank

[Jiten Patel]

Dave - If they were my wifes, I would be sure to make her sort my acrylic bends for me...seriously though....I would probably wake up with my parts missing if I took them to use on acrylic!

[Bill Stearns]

Hey All -
In this case I'm not planning to open explanatory files I don't know who-from - so, 'fore looking into this further, let me ask: What are 'few of the applications where "bending" acrylic is useful. (however it's accomplished.) You all seem to know this has some use. Have never thought of doing this - have never run 'cross the need. Yet, always open, for the most part, to new ideas. (BTW: I have cut shapes out of sheets of colored acrylics - just never thought of bending it. (I'll stay out' a the wife missing her hair curler gizmo discussion.)

Bill

[Matt McCoy]

Hey All -
In this case I'm not planning to open explanatory files I don't know who-from - so, 'fore looking into this further, let me ask: What are 'few of the applications where "bending" acrylic is useful. (however it's accomplished.) You all seem to know this has some use. Have never thought of doing this - have never run 'cross the need. Yet, always open, for the most part, to new ideas. (BTW: I have cut shapes out of sheets of colored acrylics - just never thought of bending it. (I'll stay out' a the wife missing her hair curler gizmo discussion.)

Bill

Here's a prototype of something I make that requires bending acrylic.

289796

[Robert Walters]

What are 'few of the applications where "bending" acrylic is useful.


One example might be reverse engraving an organization's logo on acrylic then bending it into a table tent or photo frame.

See this for examples:
http://www.google.com/images?q=acrylic+table+tent

[Dave Bonde]

Here are a couple of examples where we bend acrylic.289797

[Bill Stearns]

Thanks for the pics, guys! - worth 'thousand words, as they say. That's what I love 'bout this business - always something new to learn - or think 'bout doing. Guess I'll go back and re-read the threads. - or, just ask fresh: does the hair curler device handle the job on smaller items? Any particular instructions for me, if I were to try using one. (divorced 'n don't have one handy.)

Bill

[Dave Sheldrake]

ummm does anybody know how to get melted acrylic off of GHD hair straighteners?

Wonder if I can get into town and get her a new set before she realises ;)

[David Somers]

Dave,

Didn't you want to bend that acrylic? Not straighten it? <grin>

I bet she never notices it unless she attempts to run a comb through that part. And the acrylic it adds to her hair the next time she uses it will add body and shine to it. I would only be concerned if you used it on colored acrylic. Bright red acrylic in her hair might be noticeable.

Let me know if you need a place to stay once she discovers your secret. It is a long drive, but you are always welcome!!!! <grin>

Dave

[Robert Walters]

Acrylic bender 30 days from China........ $50
Your Wife/gf's GHD in the other room... $200
Look on her face when she finds out...... PRICELESS

[Jiten Patel]

ahaha brilliant - Dave - you're in trouble fella. Question is, did it work?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Works really well if you keep the time quite quick Jit, she has a set of single line crimpers too (V groove type) so going to go rob them as well and see what happens.

Once they cool down the melted acrylic comes off quite easily, ooo noticed she has some fringe straighteners as well, tiny little heat area so they could work well.

She's used to me doing daft things (hopefully as she hasn't noticed the GHD's yet) my chinese bag sealer also works well for bending (and is heat adjustable)

cheers

Dave

[Michael Reilly]

I've been in contact with them in the past, their pricing isn't unreasonable, but they wanted a fairly steep surcharge to pay with Paypal instead of Western Union and shipping wasn't cheap either. Funny thing is, if they rolled those things into the price, I probably wouldn't have thought much of it.

I'm almost certain it's off the shelf hair tools, so I plan to look into those at some point.

[Keith Colson]

Hi All, i just joined the laser club a few weeks ago with a Universal 60 watt CO2 I got in a closing down sale. 80 hours of installing and I am in business.

You can do bending in the laser machine itself. See this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arjRtCjI9AQ)

You can also bend acrylic nicely a couple of other ways. Hang your acrylic off the end of a table and heat some nichrome wire up just above the bend. point, it will bend with gravity when its ready. Or get an old school bar heater and lay some metal shields on it to leave a slot of exposed heat. Lay your acyclic on there for 30 seconds or so and then it will be soft only at the bend area.

Cheers
Keith

edns.co.nz

[Robert Walters]

The LaserOrigami is neat, but it's a research project.

I'm not sure there is even enough control to defocus the laser to create a bend in many systems.
Especially due to the closed and proprietary nature on many of them.

While I'm not there yes, I CAN control the Z-axis on mine via it's serial port. But the command protocol is somewhat limited. I have to send out jobs via parallel port, "layers" at a time, the send a command via serial port.

Still, a neat idea what they did, wish it was open sourced though =)

[Paul hardy]

You must be good at sales. I ordered a set of these and they came in today. They really work pretty well. It's about 20-30 seconds to heat up 1/8 in acrylic for an easy bend. Much simpler than getting out the strip heater for doing small stuff. Now we'll see how long they last. We won't use this all the time, so we won't be a good test for hard use.

[Robert Walters]

You must be good at sales. I ordered a set of these and they came in today. They really work pretty well. It's about 20-30 seconds to heat up 1/8 in acrylic for an easy bend. Much simpler than getting out the strip heater for doing small stuff. Now we'll see how long they last. We won't use this all the time, so we won't be a good test for hard use.

Heh, seemed to arrive fairly quickly too.

Did yours come with a US or EU plug?

If you get an hour use out of them, they've paid for themselves.

If you can save time by grabbing these instead of clearing off an area, setting up your strip heater, align everything, make the bend(s), then put everything away, 5 minutes vs 20 minutes, they are saving you money.

Glad they worked out.

If you don't mind...

Could you post some photos, particularly the areas that "sandwich" the material to be bent?
I'd like to see if teflon tape can be applied to it easily enough.

If you can put a ruler next to one (for scale) that would be great =)

[Paul hardy]

Could you post some photos, particularly the areas that "sandwich" the material to be bent?
I'd like to see if teflon tape can be applied to it easily enough.

If you can put a ruler next to one (for scale) that would be great =)


I ordered a US plug, and got a US plug. They look decently made. I haven't tried the big one yet. I added the teflon tape to the little one(they came w/ 2 extra wide strips); it takes about a minute... including cutting. The big one has the tape already applied. The tape helps; the little sorta stuck to the acrylic on the 1st test. Not bad, and no marks, but you had to pull the jaws apart a bit.

If you can't read the scale, the elements are about 4in long. The elements stop about .040 back from the end of the jaw. The switch is on the inside of the jaws; that's it in the 2nd pic behind the jaw. I guess it keeps you from accidently switching it off.

290812290813

[Robert Walters]

I ordered a US plug, and got a US plug. They look decently made. I haven't tried the big one yet. I added the teflon tape to the little one(they came w/ 2 extra wide strips); it takes about a minute... including cutting. The big one has the tape already applied.

Thanks Paul,

I didn't realize it came with teflon tape.

Do you order from seller I originally linked to, or another one on that website?

[David Somers]

And all this time I thought an acrylic bender was another variant for a sophomoric night of overindulgence.

Live and learn!

Dave

[Konrad Birchfield]

I bought these on eBay two weeks ago, just had to to cut the plug off and put US plug on and they reimbursed me for the price of the plug and promised 20% off of my next purchase. I got them from Engeravercutteronline. 59.99 plus a little shipping, all in all I'm real pleased. But my daughters hair straightener looks like it would work in place on the long radius bender.
konrad

[Konrad Birchfield]

If you would like more ideas you can go to Instrutables and look at some of the acrylic projects they have and a lot of them will have a CorelDraw file to go with it that you can modify to your liking. Here's one that I got from there and used the above mentioned benders.