Sometimes the simplest design is the best! Looks like this works well, with repeatable results. I'm definitely adding this to my repertoire! Thank you for doing this.
Suggestion...place the speed square on the backside (the board you lift) after you make the bend. You can turn off the heat, clamp the speed square in position and let the plastic cool. If you need to go past 90-degrees to account for spring-back, place a shim under the back of the speed square. This would give you accuracy and repeat-ability. Regards.
One nice aspect of this setup is how the narrow slot for the heating element, and clamping the sheet to maintain the bend location, contains the bend to a really crisp tight angle, versus the broader curve when the heat is distributed over a wider area and the sheet is not held to limit the bending. Next would be to compare acrylic versus Lexan for springback.
you have no idea how proud i was of myself when i finally got my 12" sliding mitre saw to cut square, i got 123 blocks, an engineers' square, a digital angle gague, and a lazer square, (ya, i know, i could have just bought a new one by the time i got all that stuff ), but i was on a mission, i found out , on my own , that one of the slide tubes had a slight arc , i tapped it with a dead blow hammer and it finally cut square, i was sooooo proud of myself, i showed my girl , and she was like , cool, and that was it, i don't think i talked to for like 2 days, she just didn't get the monumental impact this had on me, it was like a lord of the rings epic journey
What you need is higher voltage. The current @ 12V will be what it is, increasing the battery charger range to 50A will not put more current into the wire. The wire current is limited by its resistance, which can be measured with a Volt Ohm Meter. To figure voltage & current you use "Ohms Law" Current = voltage/ resistance. Using to much voltage x current will burn up the wire. This all can be calculated if the wire gauge is known. I will elaborate more on this if you want to pursue this idea. Nice project!
I don't know how the 55amp side would work. I've never had a jump pack that I've had to use. There are transformers on Amazon that supply regulated 12V/10Amp from a 120V source for around $15. Pair it with a constant voltage (12v) dimmer and you should have a controllable ranging heat source. For roughly ~ $25, give or take.
I really like this. I gonna make one for a little project I have in mind. Like using plexi to protect the corners of my house's siding from weed whackers. Thanks for posting this. :)
Great video, I didn't know something like this could be built. I'm just doing my initial research on working with plastics so I can build an adventure Tower for my motorcycle. Nicely done on the bend-O-Matic, and the video.
I bought a decent size used radiant heater off Facebook marketplace, a Lakewood 530 with 2 heat levels and an adjustment knob. Going to remove the top carry handle then attach a flat plate to the top and a plate to the front with a gap between the plates. Then I am going to use a hinge and attach a plate to the top of the front plate. Then I am going to remove the tip sensor and place it on the front hinged top plate. Then when I put a section of plastic on top and clip it to the rear top plate and the front hinged plate and turn on the heater I'll have a gap between the top rear plate and front hinged plate so the heat goes up through the gap and heats the plastic. When the plastic gets hot and the front plate begins to sag it will turn off the heater and I will remove the plastic and finish the bend as needed with the plastic clamped to an adjustable bend guide. The lakewood 530 heater also has a buzzer that goes off when it senses the heater has fallen over. So when the front plate sags it will not only turn off but also sound the buzzer. This way I can walk away and do something else until the buzzer goes off and the plate is heated enough to finish the bend. I have a lot of plastic to bend so I am hoping this works out well and I can do other production work, then, when the buzzer goes off, come over remove the heated plastic, clamp it in a bend jig to keep it the correct angle, load up another plastic plate then walk away and do other stuff. I'll probably have to experiment until I get it working right and maybe get some plates with a layer of insulation underneath so the top plate does not get so hot it melts the plastic on contact. I should be able to get a lot of plastic bent. Might even have to find another Lakewood 530 and setup another bend heater to get 2 plastic plates heating up at once. Did some searches and people are selling them on ebay and itsy. No info online about them so they must have been made pre-internet.
Not sure how far you want to take this...but you could attach a large protractor at one side. If you find you need to go to 92-degrees to achieve a final 90-degrees, you would place a stop-block at 92-degrees, heat the plastic, bend to stop block, then clamp and let cool. The protractor setup would allow you to make any angle with repeat-ability. Regards.
Nice job - one thing I don't understand: why have the bending jig be part of the heating bed at all? Heat the plastic, turn off the heat, and remove the plastic from the heater, and bend it in a stand-alone bending jig. No waiting for the wire to cool off and less chance of contacting the hot parts once you move on to bending?
Nice workmanship. just a suggestion , you might put a bevel on that top board so you could bend more than 90 degrees. I hope you can get that to work as well with lexan. i look forward to that possibility.
Suggestion, apply tape to exposed edges on the MDF and place a strip down on the OSB prior to assembly the extra material will give You more heat sink and the assembly would be slightly simplified.
I like it! However (my 2-cents says)... You might want to add an adjustable break-stop instead of using that carpenters square. That way, you can dial in exact bending degrees for every bend. Maybe something attached to the break that flips up/down/around somehow with a locking thumb-screw that stops the break at an exact point. In other words, think along the lines of how you might make a door open to an exact point with an adjustable door-stop -- possibly even embedded to the door when not in use too. And of course, possibly dress it up with a timer &/or switch for heating time/temp as well as an attached power supply (adjustable, though no need to be regulated) so you can store it and not have to go digging around for "attachments". Think about vertical storage unless you have tons of space or use different storage techniques.
awesome idea, i think i'll try it, except, i'm gonna try a flat iron that you use to straighten hair, and add it to a piece of sheet metal, they get wicked hot
Great video, the handy thing with this device is if you have bent it too far you can just reheat the bend and reset the piece in the correct position, also I would rather wait longer to achieve the heat than have it too hot as your edge's of the bend look flawless. Might be a good idea to put a fan at top and bottom of bed to rapidly cool the sheet after the bend.
You can make your bends more accurate if you add a stop block at 90 degrees to the bend line, this could also have a ruler on top to determine the length of the part protruding over the wire. Nice quick job anyway!
I'm in the process of making something similar to the bend-o-matic for flattening and bending PVC pipe. I'm currently trying to come up with a good power supply.
To expand on the protractor idea, mount TWO wooden semi-circles with a semi circular slot cut in them and angles pre-marked - one on each end of the bending table. Then attach a bolt to the bending/hinged part through the slots with wing-nuts on the outside. Bend the plastic, lock bend in place with wing nuts, let heat a bit more and then cool while locked in place. Might still need to allow for spring back but should have more control over precise angles. Idea same as setting angles in a circular saw or other tools that lock in angles.
Excellent man...been 4 years since you posted this, I hope by now you've discovered ABS and PVC sheets for making your own custom cases...beats the 25~50$ for a "professional" case!
Nice video, and as someone else said, thanks for not having any music ! What kind of wire did you use for the heating source? It'd be OK if some Bon Iver were playing at low volume :)
walmart or harbor frieght (either) plus 4 bucks gets you multiple sizes of thumb nuts btw. also...as far as attaching it. Acetone or paint stripper and an aplicator bottle with fine tip... plus light clamping will chemically weld plexi as well as the expensive glue. it will set in 5 to 10 min but give it 24hrs for full strength. paint stripper is supposed to be better but ive had good luck with acetone /havent notixced a huge diff and acetone is way more body friendly/indoor friendly than pain stripper. I have a tank holding acid for etching copper that i made with acetone. give it a shot. its cheap. one thing to note: dont flame polish or clamp too hard, it will kraze. I use an 80 tooth 10inch miter saw blade from harbor freight for cutting.
Nice 👍🏻 I’ve seen them use a old waffle iron heating element and the power cord also seen them use a old small Electric heater, I think that’s the way I’m going to build my bender, I think it will get hotter faster and save time. It really is simple isn’t it? Thanks for the video.
i want to enclose a custom recumbet tricycle i built...i am thinking of laminate sheeting...my shell design is along the lines of the stealth bomber..45 degree angles....can that material be heated to bend or am I gonna have to stick (pardon the pun) with gluing it to the enclosure frame and making additional cuts to "wrap around"?
A shop used to charge me a fortune to bend some acrylic sheets. One day I was picking up and they left the back garage door open. They were using a DIY tables like this. 4 or 5 of them.
i think the problem of measuring the temp is worse than just plastic...pretty sure metal has to be anodized black for a proper read with an ir gun. havent confirmed that 100% but ive seen it come up in papers for heat sinks and mentioned in a videdo or manual (was a while ago) for a thermal cam
I would have to say that your project is one of the simplest that I've see. BTW I wouldn't change the power requirements at all 55A seems sufficient enough. To much amperage and you might start to toast things a little.
12V times 50A gives you 600W, no way that wire runs at that, seems like the resistance of the wire is either too much or too little and you run it only like 50W or so. You need at least 100W, commercial machines use around 200W though those are made out of steel and having 200W in a wooden contraption may not be very safe...
Sometimes the simplest design is the best! Looks like this works well, with repeatable results. I'm definitely adding this to my repertoire! Thank you for doing this.
Suggestion...place the speed square on the backside (the board you lift) after you make the bend. You can turn off the heat, clamp the speed square in position and let the plastic cool. If you need to go past 90-degrees to account for spring-back, place a shim under the back of the speed square. This would give you accuracy and repeat-ability. Regards.
One nice aspect of this setup is how the narrow slot for the heating element, and clamping the sheet to maintain the bend location, contains the bend to a really crisp tight angle, versus the broader curve when the heat is distributed over a wider area and the sheet is not held to limit the bending. Next would be to compare acrylic versus Lexan for springback.
I am baffled this worked lmao. Great job sir! Genius diy
It gives you a real sense of achievement when something works as it should. Nice job. I am going to put it on my list of projects.
Cheers Dave
you have no idea how proud i was of myself when i finally got my 12" sliding mitre saw to cut square, i got 123 blocks, an engineers' square, a digital angle gague, and a lazer square,
(ya, i know, i could have just bought a new one by the time i got all that stuff ), but i was on a mission, i found out , on my own , that one of the slide tubes had a slight arc , i tapped it with a dead blow hammer and it finally cut square, i was sooooo proud of myself, i showed my girl , and she was like , cool, and that was it, i don't think i talked to for like 2 days, she just didn't get the monumental impact this had on me, it was like a lord of the rings epic journey
What you need is higher voltage. The current @ 12V will be what it is, increasing the battery charger range to 50A will not put more current into the wire. The wire current is limited by its resistance, which can be measured with a Volt Ohm Meter. To figure voltage & current you use "Ohms Law" Current = voltage/ resistance. Using to much voltage x current will burn up the wire. This all can be calculated if the wire gauge is known. I will elaborate more on this if you want to pursue this idea. Nice project!
I don't know how the 55amp side would work. I've never had a jump pack that I've had to use. There are transformers on Amazon that supply regulated 12V/10Amp from a 120V source for around $15. Pair it with a constant voltage (12v) dimmer and you should have a controllable ranging heat source. For roughly ~ $25, give or take.
Great Job! This gave me an idea on a project I’m working on to give TV’s a frame to look more like a digital display
I really like this. I gonna make one for a little project I have in mind. Like using plexi to protect the corners of my house's siding from weed whackers. Thanks for posting this. :)
Great, thanks. Could we use a metal wire unraveled from a hair dryer, and run on house current? complete or half wave?
Great video, I didn't know something like this could be built. I'm just doing my initial research on working with plastics so I can build an adventure Tower for my motorcycle. Nicely done on the bend-O-Matic, and the video.
I bought a decent size used radiant heater off Facebook marketplace, a Lakewood 530 with 2 heat levels and an adjustment knob. Going to remove the top carry handle then attach a flat plate to the top and a plate to the front with a gap between the plates. Then I am going to use a hinge and attach a plate to the top of the front plate. Then I am going to remove the tip sensor and place it on the front hinged top plate.
Then when I put a section of plastic on top and clip it to the rear top plate and the front hinged plate and turn on the heater I'll have a gap between the top rear plate and front hinged plate so the heat goes up through the gap and heats the plastic. When the plastic gets hot and the front plate begins to sag it will turn off the heater and I will remove the plastic and finish the bend as needed with the plastic clamped to an adjustable bend guide.
The lakewood 530 heater also has a buzzer that goes off when it senses the heater has fallen over. So when the front plate sags it will not only turn off but also sound the buzzer. This way I can walk away and do something else until the buzzer goes off and the plate is heated enough to finish the bend.
I have a lot of plastic to bend so I am hoping this works out well and I can do other production work, then, when the buzzer goes off, come over remove the heated plastic, clamp it in a bend jig to keep it the correct angle, load up another plastic plate then walk away and do other stuff.
I'll probably have to experiment until I get it working right and maybe get some plates with a layer of insulation underneath so the top plate does not get so hot it melts the plastic on contact. I should be able to get a lot of plastic bent. Might even have to find another Lakewood 530 and setup another bend heater to get 2 plastic plates heating up at once. Did some searches and people are selling them on ebay and itsy. No info online about them so they must have been made pre-internet.
Not sure how far you want to take this...but you could attach a large protractor at one side. If you find you need to go to 92-degrees to achieve a final 90-degrees, you would place a stop-block at 92-degrees, heat the plastic, bend to stop block, then clamp and let cool. The protractor setup would allow you to make any angle with repeat-ability. Regards.
Nice job - one thing I don't understand: why have the bending jig be part of the heating bed at all? Heat the plastic, turn off the heat, and remove the plastic from the heater, and bend it in a stand-alone bending jig. No waiting for the wire to cool off and less chance of contacting the hot parts once you move on to bending?
I agree, that was what I did. I used a bender with twin wires, both top and bottom for 1/2 acrylic. Then used previously made angles to bend to.
Nice workmanship. just a suggestion , you might put a bevel on that top board so you could bend more than 90 degrees. I hope you can get that to work as well with lexan. i look forward to that possibility.
What type and gauge of resistance wire is used for the plastic bender ? Thanks - cool vid!
Suggestion, apply tape to exposed edges on the MDF and place a strip down on the OSB prior to assembly the extra material will give You more heat sink and the assembly would be slightly simplified.
Superb...Hats off buddy.. lucidly explained too...
I like it! However (my 2-cents says)...
You might want to add an adjustable break-stop instead of using that carpenters square. That way, you can dial in exact bending degrees for every bend. Maybe something attached to the break that flips up/down/around somehow with a locking thumb-screw that stops the break at an exact point. In other words, think along the lines of how you might make a door open to an exact point with an adjustable door-stop -- possibly even embedded to the door when not in use too.
And of course, possibly dress it up with a timer &/or switch for heating time/temp as well as an attached power supply (adjustable, though no need to be regulated) so you can store it and not have to go digging around for "attachments". Think about vertical storage unless you have tons of space or use different storage techniques.
awesome idea, i think i'll try it, except, i'm gonna try a flat iron that you use to straighten hair, and add it to a piece of sheet metal, they get wicked hot
Would you please give the details of heating wire and machine used?
Great video, the handy thing with this device is if you have bent it too far you can just reheat the bend and reset the piece in the correct position, also I would rather wait longer to achieve the heat than have it too hot as your edge's of the bend look flawless. Might be a good idea to put a fan at top and bottom of bed to rapidly cool the sheet after the bend.
You can make your bends more accurate if you add a stop block at 90 degrees to the bend line, this could also have a ruler on top to determine the length of the part protruding over the wire.
Nice quick job anyway!
I'm in the process of making something similar to the bend-o-matic for flattening and bending PVC pipe. I'm currently trying to come up with a good power supply.
To expand on the protractor idea, mount TWO wooden semi-circles with a semi circular slot cut in them and angles pre-marked - one on each end of the bending table. Then attach a bolt to the bending/hinged part through the slots with wing-nuts on the outside. Bend the plastic, lock bend in place with wing nuts, let heat a bit more and then cool while locked in place. Might still need to allow for spring back but should have more control over precise angles. Idea same as setting angles in a circular saw or other tools that lock in angles.
Wow that worked nicely.... I have always wanted to try that..... that and vacuum forming plastic... those bends sure turned out nice
I was gripped, great work!
You made a wee shelf for your desk aswel ..lol.
Excellent man...been 4 years since you posted this, I hope by now you've discovered ABS and PVC sheets for making your own custom cases...beats the 25~50$ for a "professional" case!
Nice video, and as someone else said, thanks for not having any music !
What kind of wire did you use for the heating source?
It'd be OK if some Bon Iver were playing at low volume :)
Is your digital thermometer reading in C of F?
I love your tenacity.... Thank you.
Hello good afternoon. What is the name of de silver ribbon you use and where can I fand it??
walmart or harbor frieght (either) plus 4 bucks gets you multiple sizes of thumb nuts btw. also...as far as attaching it. Acetone or paint stripper and an aplicator bottle with fine tip... plus light clamping will chemically weld plexi as well as the expensive glue. it will set in 5 to 10 min but give it 24hrs for full strength. paint stripper is supposed to be better but ive had good luck with acetone /havent notixced a huge diff and acetone is way more body friendly/indoor friendly than pain stripper.
I have a tank holding acid for etching copper that i made with acetone. give it a shot. its cheap. one thing to note: dont flame polish or clamp too hard, it will kraze. I use an 80 tooth 10inch miter saw blade from harbor freight for cutting.
Nice 👍🏻 I’ve seen them use a old waffle iron heating element and the power cord also seen them use a old small Electric heater, I think that’s the way I’m going to build my bender, I think it will get hotter faster and save time. It really is simple isn’t it?
Thanks for the video.
Great stuff! I want to make one but I can't figure out in my head how to make a 3 step bend say every 10cm.
i want to enclose a custom recumbet tricycle i built...i am thinking of laminate sheeting...my shell design is along the lines of the stealth bomber..45 degree angles....can that material be heated to bend or am I gonna have to stick (pardon the pun) with gluing it to the enclosure frame and making additional cuts to "wrap around"?
Nice I like it & ur humbleness it's great Thanks
Yes thanks for the video how far down below the surface in the split is the wire is it rate at the level of the tape or is it down a little bit
What wire are you using? How long? What gauge? How many ohms per feet?
Neat job. Is the plastic 1/8ths? Thanks. Joe
A shop used to charge me a fortune to bend some acrylic sheets. One day I was picking up and they left the back garage door open. They were using a DIY tables like this. 4 or 5 of them.
Looks good man!! Great idea!!
Bend-O-Matic 1000, I don't think so. Looks like the 150 model. The 1000 has a carry case and built-in power supply. Nice work as usual.
A material list would be nice.
i think the problem of measuring the temp is worse than just plastic...pretty sure metal has to be anodized black for a proper read with an ir gun. havent confirmed that 100% but ive seen it come up in papers for heat sinks and mentioned in a videdo or manual (was a while ago) for a thermal cam
很實際的試進程.我喜歡這樣的感覺!非常棒!
You did GOOD man! Nice Job, nice bend. :)
Good vid. Especially appreciate that there's no music going on!
I would have to say that your project is one of the simplest that I've see. BTW I wouldn't change the power requirements at all 55A seems sufficient enough. To much amperage and you might start to toast things a little.
hey man can u bend lexan plastic 180degrees with few mm gap?
2:15 Rember IR units like these are not too good for reflective surfaces
Awesome work!!!
that's perty cool ..gives me an ideal for a Bluetooth speaker with some LED lights ...
well done, nice job!
12V times 50A gives you 600W, no way that wire runs at that, seems like the resistance of the wire is either too much or too little and you run it only like 50W or so.
You need at least 100W, commercial machines use around 200W though those are made out of steel and having 200W in a wooden contraption may not be very safe...
konten ini berguna sekali untuk saya... terimakasih infonya
Nice work
Lol this guy is so relaxed
OK for diy, but in a commercial operation you should be doing at least 3 bends a minute from each machine.
Nice job man, BTW your voice reminds me of Duke Nukem ! :)
iRep3D I was thinking Ron Swanson!
I thought he sounded like Dan from the TV show Roseanne.
Good job!!
Instead of more amperage, try a thinner wire.
nice job.
Awesome, starting to build my own.
One comment though, Bend-O-Matic *1000* ? Aluminum tape and Ol' Shitty Board - more like Bend-O-Matic 100. 😉
Excellent
Cool
You sound like Dan Connor.
its sam elliot bending plastic
not very user friendly way of bending.
good job