Hi has anyone bent lexan sheet it will need to be bent with a 3ins radius the sheet will be 30ins wide
If you have how did you do it
Thanks
Jacko
Needs to be dried in an oven for about 24 hours before bending to avoid stress crazing.
hot air gun gently heated or it will blister
Would it bend by using a steam wall paper stripper and bending it over a 6ins pipe ?
May do if enclosed and left long enough. We bend lexan everyday at work but its a tight rad so we heat it with a hot wire over 10mins period and
place it in a wooden jig.
The problem you will have is getting consistent heat and shape over the open rad along its whole length. I think a heat gun will not work.
Deffinatly spend the time and make up a stable and solid jig to bend and fix it in place. I would then suggest buying second hand a electric element
indoor heater and using that at a distance. Maybe even dismantle it and rig it up to heat along the whole length of plastic.
I would also get the idea of having a nice easy to see through bend put of ypur mind. It will warp and distort alot creating ppor visibility through
it, regarfless of how much care you take.
Good luck.
As bi22le says, it can be difficult, however I bent a fly screen for my 2B using a hot air gun, with a plumbers heat mat over aluminium foil, using
the scuttle as a former
I did as suggested and warmed the polycarb with a heater, until it was too hot to touch, laid it over the scuttle and applied heat with the heat gun,
allowing the poly to droop into shape (with a little pressure on the end of the sheet). The problem is that if a small section of the Poly cools
slightly, it will crack and craze.
This worked well, but I would suggest using offcuts to practice, and make sure that you don't buy MarGard poly, this will not bend and
I think I would use Perspex if I had to do it again.
Poor quality photo, but you can see the bend.
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