Acrylic bending machine - video

[Jon]

Acrylic bending machine. By Desire to Inspire. 15:58 video:

[hemmjo]

I have bent a lot of acrylic. Nice looking bender, BUT, the red hot wire can easily damage acrylic sheet.

The maximum temperature for acrylic when forming is about 160˚C (≈320˚F). That orange glowing wire is between 1000-1200˚C. (≈2000˚F). You need to be very careful heating acrylic with that hot wire. Especially thicker sheets where one side will easily become be too hot and begin to bubble while the other side is still too cold and may crack when bending. 500˚C is more than enough to heat acrylic for bending. It is easier to control heating and will allow the heat to soak through the sheet more evenly. You can also turn the sheet over half way through the heating process to assure even heating.