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Bending Evergreen plastic rods
HeavyArty
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Posted: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 - 07:17 PM UTC

Quoted Text

First thing, take a scrap piece of sprue , heat it & stretch it to the right diameter you need. Make a bunch in case you mess up.



I agree with all the above except this line. You will never get consistently sized pieces of stretched sprue. The jig idea is great, just stick with the Plastruct or Evergreen styrene rod so it is the same size for all the bows. 0.025 is probably the size rod you want.
tatbaqui
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ARMORAMA
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Metro Manila, Philippines
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 05:13 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

First thing, take a scrap piece of sprue , heat it & stretch it to the right diameter you need. Make a bunch in case you mess up.



I agree with all the above except this line. You will never get consistently sized pieces of stretched sprue. The jig idea is great, just stick with the Plastruct or Evergreen styrene rod so it is the same size for all the bows. 0.025 is probably the size rod you want.



Agree -- getting a consistent size is the challenge. It may work if the need is just for a one-off, short length item, otherwise one is better off using the commercially available rods. Cheers
tatbaqui
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ARMORAMA
#040
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 05:14 AM UTC



Thanks Tony!
DocEvan
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 07:46 AM UTC
I hold the rod very close to a burning incense stick. You get better control of the heat delivery and more focus of the heat. I approximate where the beds should be and mark them with a black Sharpie marker.


Quoted Text

However, I am having issues with bending the evergreen plastic rods to simulate the bars for the canvas cover(?). What techniques do you use to bend plastic rods without breaking them? I do not want to resort to using metal rods because I want to stay in the same medium for ease of gluing purposes.

Thanks.

James

gcdavidson
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Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 08:37 AM UTC
hold the tip of a soldering iron near the bend
Removed by original poster on 02/11/16 - 06:28:13 (GMT).
Austmouse
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Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Joined: February 11, 2008
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Posted: Friday, June 24, 2016 - 04:59 PM UTC
I have had trouble over the years bending plastic rod.

First you need a round tube to bend around - perhaps held in a desk vice
I use the heat from a jos stick - incense stick - low heat but hot.
I stick the end of the stick between some books light iut and then heat the point where the nbend is needed. Make sure you rotate your rod to ensure even heat. A bit of proctice you can do a bend a minute

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