Thanks for posting this I have been making 3 sided safety shields using 1/4" Lexan for years and most people don't believe me that it can be done. I had to convince the local welding/fab shop to do them for me.... they were amazed. Commercial brakes have a taper blankholder so you can overbend in one step. I also find that holding the position give the polycarbonate time to relax and I get less springback. In twenty years of daily use on my hydraulic presses I have not had one crack. I mount them to the press posts with 4 holes drilled 1 inch from the edges (no frame) so slick!
Very helpful. The fact that you used two bends to acquire 90 degrees is going to be perfect for my application. I had only thought of a large radius previously. Thanks for sharing.
Even after working in aerospace (machinist) for 30+ years, I never heard a peep about this technique!! Amazing. A lot of time, money and sanity would have been saved if certain engineers had known about this DOH! method!
It's funny how this is such an old footage but informative as hell and after talking to so called it plastic specialists in my city all they talk about is "Thermo-Forming" Lexan and telling me the risk of bubbling it or damaging it??? Thank you for giving me this information to bring up into conversation when I visit these guys for a quotation and see what their charge would be to do this!
Thank you very much for having this up and avaliable to the learning public, as a welding student, who was researching the best material for my motor bike to make some hand guards and a winshield to help battle the 15 to 30 degree weather we are having. I was looking into hot forming some kind of poly carbonite, likely lexan for it's proven safety as a shielding material. Aside from the simplicity of getting single axial bends with a brake though, I don't currently know why one would choose hot vs cold. I'm assuming there's no way to achieve the more complex design of a curved surface like that of a windshield without using a hot forming technique, but this was still informational, so thank you, deeply.
Ideas are flowing..after I remove the rear windows of my 93 Suburban, in order to make it look more like an Avalanche, I will need to make a removable rear window..I don't need it to have a bend, but I am thinking that I want to cut out my roof and have a smaller removable sunroof and a larger fixed sunroof over the back seat area..I will need for it to be UV resistant and also tinted..since the roof has a curve. the pieces will need a bend but not as much as what you did here..thanks for revealing this knowledge.
Your videos are always so engaging :), The topics for your videos are on point :), This video of yours had me glued to the screen:), What camera do you use to shoot your episodes?, What mike do use?
Les, I am considering using Lexan to form a lip on the bottom of my Pitts Biplane's cowling to encourage a little more cooling airflow. This simple video was very helpful.
+Eric Anderson Sounds like a cool project. How significant of a change can you make to the aircraft without affecting the type certification? I have always been curious about how modifications to acrobatics certified aircraft worked. Or do you just get it certified as experimental?
Hi Les, I was wondering what type of brake you were using and how thick of material it will take? I'm looking to bend some 1/4" polycarbonate in the near future-- do you think it will do the job?
+Dylan Campbell the brake used in the video is a cheap bending break from harbor freight. One quarter inch would be twice the thickness I have ever bent in this break so I cannot say how well it will work (my guess would be not well). remember also the spring back will be enormous compared to metal sheet. at 1/4 inch thickness it might be a good idea to notch the bend line and then bend on that line with the reduced thickness.
Hi-did you test it with the sun exposure or any higher temperature?Do you think that could bend polycarbonate back to the flat ....?Is bending leaves any cracks inside...? Gr8 vid!
you only need to raise the temperature of the portion being formed. heating the entire piece is useful for other process which apply features across most of the part (like vacuum forming). like most thermoplastic polymers polycarbonate can be recast into its original shape with proper molds and temperature. there are no cracks in the polycorbonate when bent in the manner shown.
I found your video very educational and I have some questions. What is the thickness of the polycarbonate you are bending. I need to bend 1/4 inch material along a 23 inch plane. Would the bending brake you show in the video be sufficient to get this type of job done? Your advice would be much appreciated.
Mmm Skids The piece being bent in the video is a bit over 3/32". Something 1/4" thick is moving out of the realm of sheets and moving into the world of plates where parts are not commonly bent with this of bender. Something like a box and pan break might be more appropriate.
Great tip about Lexan not needing heat. Seems there was not a lot of whute in the bend, I have to bend a tube 180 degrees, need advice for preventing white marks. I assume that does happen with lexan.
I have never had any marks appears on my bends. Tubing could be different though, the stretch will be far greater along the outside edge of a tube than a plain sheet.
abs, lexan, and kydex all have a similar flexural modulus (around 2.3-2.5 GPa), so at the same thickness they will all flex the same amount under the same force. your proposed lexan sheet is 20x thicker than your specified kydex sheet so it will be proportionally more rigid.
Wish you'd shown a true 90 bend instead of the two angles adding up to the 90 here. this material your using is thicker than I have, how hard would it be to do a single 90 degree angle? or maybe heat is an easier cheaper route, or is one better than the other technique? not looking to experiment forever and want a true 90 degree. Thanks Les for the video and the great responses here was reading. you say bending doesn't decrease the strength I think, ..pretty awesome. (((I want to attach Velcro, do you think I should just use the glue that normally comes or get some bare Velcro and attach it some other way?))
You can do a full 90 degree bend with this material as long as your bending break supports it. Because the springback is so large for plastics you need a bender which can go well past 90 in order to make the full bend in one operation. Gluing things to plastic is another matter. There are may video covering this topic. I would start here: th-cam.com/video/x7onZGqrYyY/w-d-xo.html
The man in the linked video is extremely knowledgeable - thank you for sharing all of this. This is a treasure trove of knowledge, here, can't thank you enough.
Any advice for bending .02" (.5mm) PET-G plastic? I need to make some custom box protectors so I'd need to get one large, thin sheet and bend it a bunch of times and glue it so that I can turn it into a box that opens. (any recommendations for clear glue/epoxy?)
I haven't done much work with PETG so I can't give that much advice. Plastics do not bond with adhesives as well as metals do so promoting adhesion by sanding the mating surfaces immediately before bonding is important. Good luck with your project.
Hi Les, I'm wanting to start a project that uses a 45 degree bend, as well as cutting a shape and drilling screws into the polycarbonate (or otherwise finding a way to securely attatching it to a small piece of metal). I don't have much experience with the trades like this, and have no special tools like the bending machine you showcase here. Would you have any advice on what I can do to start and do these things? I'm looking at using a 24x12inch piece with 0.093inch thickness.
Do you have access to a simple bench vise? I'm going to use two pieces of scrap wood to widen the grip of mine, clamp the piece of polycarb that I need to bend - also approximately a foot wide - between them and press down on the protruding part, which I'm hoping to use as a dust screen for a multiplug, with another piece of wood from above. But that will only happen tomorrow, so let's see how it turns out, OK? I'll come back with my results!
You can make a bending tool out of a couple of 2x4s and some door hinges and clamps. Otherwise you can use standard woodworking tools on polycarbonate. Unlike acrylic polycarbonate is not brittle. Standard drills and saws will cut it without cracking it.
I have some polycarbonate tube (1" OD-7/8" ID) that I want to bend. Any advice? I am thinking about making a clamp out of 2x4" wood, but I learned about the spring back in this video. Also, I have read a long time ago that it is good to fill metal pipes with sand when you bend them, so they stay the same ID through the bend. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This stuff is kind of expensive to experiment with.
Iceman350 A couple of things. 1) Using a mandrel is always good to keep the tube from flattening out. Sand works well as does water if you can seal the ends of the tube. If you use heat to assist the bend beware of what you use as a filler as the tube may become soft enough from the heat to become sticky. Depending on the project a little flattening out of the tube is not so bad. 2) If you are building your own bending rig be sure to keep the tube in the same plane through the bend. Even if you get the bend angle perfect it may move out of plane (you get a spiral bend).
Hi. I need to get in touch with you to ask some more questions on Polycarbonate bending. Can you please let me know how I can do that? It's very important for me.
Can you heat the polycarbonate to expand the width? I'm trying to stretch a RV escape hatch (vent lid) so if can fit on an older cutout. I know it will weaken it, so I'm going to reinforce it with an external aluminum frame
You would probably need to heat it and run it through rollers, if you have an old school washing mangle you might manage it. Probably easier to order an oversized sheet and cut to shape.
Can u tell me how Is it possible to hot bend the 8mm sheet ? What temperature should i apply? After hot bend does the sheet have a little spring effect? Thank you!
For lexan around 200C. Springback is not an issue for heat forming. The part should retain its shape as it cools (though it will shrink a tiny amount).
Les Wilhelm thabk you for the rast reply! some of my friends tryed to bend it in a bow shape but on 130celsius...and it springer back. I will try to do it with 200 celsius! I hope i t will work.
+Les Wilhelm you alter the structure if the molecules when you bend it like that. try bending it back without breaking. heat will help stabilize it as you bend
I have never worked with multiwall sheets. My guess would be no, or at least it would be more difficult. When bending forces are applied to a multiwall sheet the supports between the sheets will likely collapse. Perhaps if you had mandrels inserted in the area of the bend you could make it work. If you can get it to work I would be interested to hear how you went about it.
That is a really great piece of knowledge, and you explain so well. Does this concept of reinforcing multiwall poly with snug-fitting mandrels apply similarly to the way that specialty conveyers, treads, etc work? Thank you.
Yes, this is commonly done. The distance between the softening temperature and ignition temperature of PC is wide. PC also does not contain any halogens.
Bending brakes like mine are used for sheet materials. Bending tubing requires a specialized tubing bender. These are a combination of dies to bend the material as well as mandrels to keep the tubing from buckling or collapsing on itself. There are many videos out there detailing how to use such devices.
@@LesWilhelm Thanks, but what you are saying is that it is indeed possible right? Do you have any links to an explanatory video anywhere? Would appreciate it.
you may want to try thermoforming lexan... you can do it at home in your oven without vacuum just drape over a plaster of paris cast or build your own thermoformer and use a shop vac.
![พาแม่บินครั้งแรก..เกือบวูบ! ให้เกาหลีเยียวยาใจ I Korea Ep.1 [Seoul] x อุงเอิง](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/waL3__dEQBU/mqdefault.jpg)
![ทัศนศึกษาโรงงานผลิตโค้ก [THAI/ENG SUB]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M9y-TJBNem0/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for posting this I have been making 3 sided safety shields using 1/4" Lexan for years and most people don't believe me that it can be done. I had to convince the local welding/fab shop to do them for me.... they were amazed. Commercial brakes have a taper blankholder so you can overbend in one step. I also find that holding the position give the polycarbonate time to relax and I get less springback. In twenty years of daily use on my hydraulic presses I have not had one crack. I mount them to the press posts with 4 holes drilled 1 inch from the edges (no frame) so slick!
Very helpful. The fact that you used two bends to acquire 90 degrees is going to be perfect for my application. I had only thought of a large radius previously. Thanks for sharing.
Even after working in aerospace (machinist) for 30+ years, I never heard a peep about this technique!! Amazing. A lot of time, money and sanity would have been saved if certain engineers had known about this DOH! method!
It's funny how this is such an old footage but informative as hell and after talking to so called it plastic specialists in my city all they talk about is "Thermo-Forming" Lexan and telling me the risk of bubbling it or damaging it??? Thank you for giving me this information to bring up into conversation when I visit these guys for a quotation and see what their charge would be to do this!
Thank you very much for having this up and avaliable to the learning public, as a welding student, who was researching the best material for my motor bike to make some hand guards and a winshield to help battle the 15 to 30 degree weather we are having.
I was looking into hot forming some kind of poly carbonite, likely lexan for it's proven safety as a shielding material.
Aside from the simplicity of getting single axial bends with a brake though, I don't currently know why one would choose hot vs cold.
I'm assuming there's no way to achieve the more complex design of a curved surface like that of a windshield without using a hot forming technique, but this was still informational, so thank you, deeply.
Ideas are flowing..after I remove the rear windows of my 93 Suburban, in order to make it look more like an Avalanche, I will need to make a removable rear window..I don't need it to have a bend, but I am thinking that I want to cut out my roof and have a smaller removable sunroof and a larger fixed sunroof over the back seat area..I will need for it to be UV resistant and also tinted..since the roof has a curve. the pieces will need a bend but not as much as what you did here..thanks for revealing this knowledge.
Fascinating! Thanks for the video!
Nice job Les !
nice video!! Please let us know if there is ever anything we can help out with
Your videos are always so engaging :),
The topics for your videos are on point :),
This video of yours had me glued to the screen:),
What camera do you use to shoot your episodes?,
What mike do use?
Mostly a GoPro Hero3+, some shots are done with a Canon T2i. Audio narration is recorded with a Shure WH30.
Could you not use a 45° wedge under the polycarb after making the first "half" bend to get a right angle from your 90° bender.
Les, I am considering using Lexan to form a lip on the bottom of my Pitts Biplane's cowling to encourage a little more cooling airflow. This simple video was very helpful.
+Eric Anderson Sounds like a cool project. How significant of a change can you make to the aircraft without affecting the type certification? I have always been curious about how modifications to acrobatics certified aircraft worked. Or do you just get it certified as experimental?
Great video thanks
Hi Les,
I was wondering what type of brake you were using and how thick of material it will take?
I'm looking to bend some 1/4" polycarbonate in the near future-- do you think it will do the job?
+Dylan Campbell the brake used in the video is a cheap bending break from harbor freight. One quarter inch would be twice the thickness I have ever bent in this break so I cannot say how well it will work (my guess would be not well). remember also the spring back will be enormous compared to metal sheet.
at 1/4 inch thickness it might be a good idea to notch the bend line and then bend on that line with the reduced thickness.
Hi-did you test it with the sun exposure or any higher temperature?Do you think that could bend polycarbonate back to the flat ....?Is bending leaves any cracks inside...?
Gr8 vid!
you only need to raise the temperature of the portion being formed. heating the entire piece is useful for other process which apply features across most of the part (like vacuum forming).
like most thermoplastic polymers polycarbonate can be recast into its original shape with proper molds and temperature.
there are no cracks in the polycorbonate when bent in the manner shown.
I found your video very educational and I have some questions. What is the thickness of the polycarbonate you are bending. I need to bend 1/4 inch material along a 23 inch plane. Would the bending brake you show in the video be sufficient to get this type of job done? Your advice would be much appreciated.
Mmm Skids The piece being bent in the video is a bit over 3/32". Something 1/4" thick is moving out of the realm of sheets and moving into the world of plates where parts are not commonly bent with this of bender. Something like a box and pan break might be more appropriate.
I use 1/4" lexan and bend two 90s 22" to make a 3 sided safety guard... I go to a local welder/fabricator to use their large brake.
Great tip about Lexan not needing heat. Seems there was not a lot of whute in the bend, I have to bend a tube 180 degrees, need advice for preventing white marks. I assume that does happen with lexan.
I have never had any marks appears on my bends. Tubing could be different though, the stretch will be far greater along the outside edge of a tube than a plain sheet.
would 1/4" thick Lexan/Abs blend be stiffer than .0125 Kydex? i need flex, and stiffness ,in a maximum of 1/4" thick
abs, lexan, and kydex all have a similar flexural modulus (around 2.3-2.5 GPa), so at the same thickness they will all flex the same amount under the same force. your proposed lexan sheet is 20x thicker than your specified kydex sheet so it will be proportionally more rigid.
Wish you'd shown a true 90 bend instead of the two angles adding up to the 90 here. this material your using is thicker than I have, how hard would it be to do a single 90 degree angle? or maybe heat is an easier cheaper route, or is one better than the other technique? not looking to experiment forever and want a true 90 degree. Thanks Les for the video and the great responses here was reading. you say bending doesn't decrease the strength I think, ..pretty awesome. (((I want to attach Velcro, do you think I should just use the glue that normally comes or get some bare Velcro and attach it some other way?))
You can do a full 90 degree bend with this material as long as your bending break supports it. Because the springback is so large for plastics you need a bender which can go well past 90 in order to make the full bend in one operation.
Gluing things to plastic is another matter. There are may video covering this topic. I would start here: th-cam.com/video/x7onZGqrYyY/w-d-xo.html
The man in the linked video is extremely knowledgeable - thank you for sharing all of this. This is a treasure trove of knowledge, here, can't thank you enough.
Any advice for bending .02" (.5mm) PET-G plastic? I need to make some custom box protectors so I'd need to get one large, thin sheet and bend it a bunch of times and glue it so that I can turn it into a box that opens. (any recommendations for clear glue/epoxy?)
I haven't done much work with PETG so I can't give that much advice. Plastics do not bond with adhesives as well as metals do so promoting adhesion by sanding the mating surfaces immediately before bonding is important. Good luck with your project.
Hi Les, I'm wanting to start a project that uses a 45 degree bend, as well as cutting a shape and drilling screws into the polycarbonate (or otherwise finding a way to securely attatching it to a small piece of metal). I don't have much experience with the trades like this, and have no special tools like the bending machine you showcase here. Would you have any advice on what I can do to start and do these things? I'm looking at using a 24x12inch piece with 0.093inch thickness.
Do you have access to a simple bench vise? I'm going to use two pieces of scrap wood to widen the grip of mine, clamp the piece of polycarb that I need to bend - also approximately a foot wide - between them and press down on the protruding part, which I'm hoping to use as a dust screen for a multiplug, with another piece of wood from above. But that will only happen tomorrow, so let's see how it turns out, OK? I'll come back with my results!
@@stadleroux Looking forward to it!
You can make a bending tool out of a couple of 2x4s and some door hinges and clamps. Otherwise you can use standard woodworking tools on polycarbonate. Unlike acrylic polycarbonate is not brittle. Standard drills and saws will cut it without cracking it.
Great Video, where did you get the brake??? Thanks
It is a cheap bending brake from Harbor Freight.
I have some polycarbonate tube (1" OD-7/8" ID) that I want to bend. Any advice? I am thinking about making a clamp out of 2x4" wood, but I learned about the spring back in this video. Also, I have read a long time ago that it is good to fill metal pipes with sand when you bend them, so they stay the same ID through the bend. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This stuff is kind of expensive to experiment with.
Iceman350 A couple of things. 1) Using a mandrel is always good to keep the tube from flattening out. Sand works well as does water if you can seal the ends of the tube. If you use heat to assist the bend beware of what you use as a filler as the tube may become soft enough from the heat to become sticky. Depending on the project a little flattening out of the tube is not so bad.
2) If you are building your own bending rig be sure to keep the tube in the same plane through the bend. Even if you get the bend angle perfect it may move out of plane (you get a spiral bend).
In regards to #2, could you elaborate? How do you achieve this, and what is a spiral bend?
Hi. I need to get in touch with you to ask some more questions on Polycarbonate bending. Can you please let me know how I can do that? It's very important for me.
I don't have a method setup for direct public contact yet. If you have a question though you can ask it here.
Can you heat the polycarbonate to expand the width? I'm trying to stretch a RV escape hatch (vent lid) so if can fit on an older cutout. I know it will weaken it, so I'm going to reinforce it with an external aluminum frame
I have never tried. It is a thermoplastic so you should be able to work it with heat.
You would probably need to heat it and run it through rollers, if you have an old school washing mangle you might manage it.
Probably easier to order an oversized sheet and cut to shape.
what was the thickness of this piece of lexan you used?
1/8 inch
Is it the 18 in. or 30 in. Bending Brake from Harbor Freight?
30 in.
Thx for the info!
Can u tell me how Is it possible to hot bend the 8mm sheet ? What temperature should i apply? After hot bend does the sheet have a little spring effect? Thank you!
For lexan around 200C.
Springback is not an issue for heat forming. The part should retain its shape as it cools (though it will shrink a tiny amount).
Les Wilhelm thabk you for the rast reply! some of my friends tryed to bend it in a bow shape but on 130celsius...and it springer back. I will try to do it with 200 celsius! I hope i t will work.
Polycarbonate does not have any reinforcing fibers which might break during bending. Thus there no change in the strength of the panel.
+Les Wilhelm you alter the structure if the molecules when you bend it like that. try bending it back without breaking. heat will help stabilize it as you bend
If you can break it like sheet metal can you also run it through a shrinker stretcher? 🤔
I have not tried.
The spring back is severe so I don't think it would come out very well. If you try I would like to know what results you get.
Hi there, do you think it's possible to bend multiwall polycarbonate. Say 10mm / 16mm 4 wall polycarbonate?
I have never worked with multiwall sheets. My guess would be no, or at least it would be more difficult. When bending forces are applied to a multiwall sheet the supports between the sheets will likely collapse. Perhaps if you had mandrels inserted in the area of the bend you could make it work.
If you can get it to work I would be interested to hear how you went about it.
Thanks for the quick reply. Have ordered multi-wall PC and will give it a go!
That is a really great piece of knowledge, and you explain so well. Does this concept of reinforcing multiwall poly with snug-fitting mandrels apply similarly to the way that specialty conveyers, treads, etc work? Thank you.
Quick question, so I want to bend the whole thing. I was thinking of putting it in the oven, is this safe?
Yes, this is commonly done. The distance between the softening temperature and ignition temperature of PC is wide. PC also does not contain any halogens.
@@LesWilhelm alrighty thank you!
how does the bend line look? is it smooth? I need 90 degree bends with one corner.
The bend is very smooth.
@@LesWilhelm So, it probably would work as a way to bend parts for design stuff, where there are no scratches as well.
WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST WAY TO BEND A HALFTUBE FORM????
Bending brakes like mine are used for sheet materials. Bending tubing requires a specialized tubing bender. These are a combination of dies to bend the material as well as mandrels to keep the tubing from buckling or collapsing on itself. There are many videos out there detailing how to use such devices.
thanks this is going to be helpful when I make safety shield for my lathe. I really didn't want to go through the heating process.
glad the video helps, good luck with your shield.
What thickness is this?
0.093 inches. Or 3/32 if you like imperial fractions.
what thickness material
3/32 inch.
This tool is called a bending break?
Yes.
Can you bend PC tubing?
Bending brakes are for bending sheet goods. Different equipment is used for bending tubing.
@@LesWilhelm Thanks, but what you are saying is that it is indeed possible right? Do you have any links to an explanatory video anywhere? Would appreciate it.
I would imagine crushing is just as much a risk bending poly tube as any other tube.
Packing with sand or a bending spring inside should help.
Thank you! I'm making breast plates out of this! :) for riot gear.
you may want to try thermoforming lexan... you can do it at home in your oven without vacuum just drape over a plaster of paris cast or build your own thermoformer and use a shop vac.
Nice to meet you. we are supplier of Poly carbonate sheets. we can offer you samples if you need.