We have a piece of Lexan that we might want to bend. How would we accomplish this?
My first thought was to get a few hair dryers and heat it up, then bend it, but will this work? What are some suggestions?
Thanks!
In terms of safety, I’m not sure about using hairdryers, but we use a industrial heat gun. Just make sure to use gloves and apply heat very evenly. If you heat the polycarbonate too much, air bubbles will form which add friction and are unsightly. Just some things to watch out for.
Put in an oven on the lowest temperature.
I was actually asking myself the same question yesterday.
We tried hairdryer, wasn’t hot enough.
We proceeded to use an oven… at 300 degrees… which was a very bad idea. A lower temperature would probably work, but we ended up buying a heat gun anyway.
Personally I like cold bends. But you need a break.
Seconded, never thought about how you would bend sharp lexan angles… maybe I’m spoiled with a sheet metal bending brake …
I would think to sandwich with some clamps to a table or something and bend with a heat gun perhaps.
If you have a piece of metal long enough to clamp the piece you can make a makeshift brake but the quality of the bend is a bit less than that of a brake, However still doable.
-Andrew
The way we bent our polycarb was with a heat gun. We just took two pieces of angle and used them to get nice right angle bends. Heat it up evenly and then press and hold until it is cooled. If you mess up you can re-heat and try again.
Alright thanks for your suggestions!