killbucket
Quarry Creeper
First off, what about Mom's kitchen tools?
I get asked about his quite a bit- everybody has a kitchen stove, and some have wondered: Can this thing help me make parts?
The answer: NO. Kitchen stoves are designed for the heating and cooking of things that are safe to consume and SMELL, i.e., Steak Tri-tips, chocolate cakes, etc. that being said, I've used my trusty Amana for worse...same goes for the ever-popular over-the-toaster trick.
Heating PLASTIC in your home immediately sets up DANGEROUS conditions. MOST plastics "out-gas" when heated, releasing volatile fumes, corrosive agents, not the building blocks of life. Sometimes, the mixtures can be deadly! A lot of plastics (thermosets) just won't melt or get soft, they'll char and go to flames first.
Like most Thermoplastics, once MELTED, ABS will puddle and bubble, and then
"spectacularly burst into sticky flames."
Yes, Mom would be mad.
So DON'T DO THIS yourself. Consider this information on how I play with fire, nothing more.
Most of what you need to know about ABS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abs_plastic
Buried in this info (actually in a link) is the "heat deflection temp" for ABS plastic. It's 185 degrees Fahrenheit. That means, at a uniform temp of 185, it can be deflected. Fancy way of saying "bent".
But you don't really want to fully heat a sheet, just bend it to your will.
This is an electric bending strip. Made of a teflon/fiberglass mesh, with a heating element woven into it.
http://www.interstateplastics.com has these in different lengths, this is a 24".
It's CHEAP UNDER $50 - get one, and skip playing with your toaster.
Making STRAIGHT bends is much easier if there is a groove ('kerf') routed into the backside of the bend. This is industry practice for making plastic structures.
It just takes a bit longer to heat through without, and a bit more care is required to get the bend positioned correctly, and be straight. Be sure to have scrap available to test with, that way you'll know how your actual part will behave in process.
Depending thickness, time will vary for getting the plastic to the right temp. Note the digital timer. By putting it in count-up mode for the first bend, I determined that 2.5 minutes were needed for full heating of a section this thick.
Then I just set up a count-down for the next parts, and was able to carry the timer while I did other small tasks.
ABOVE ALL, you don't want to become distracted and forget about plastic in-process. It only takes ONCE to really, really change your future. Please be diligently careful.
The finished bend.
So what ABOUT using kitchen appliances?
She's off, the mutts are locked outside, and the stove in the kitchen just got done making me some frozen meatpies from Costco. Rather than shut it off, I turned down the temp to 320.
I know, only 185 does the job, but it would take much longer to soften the part. The trick is to get the ambient temp around it a bit higher in the heater, so it all softens uniformly.
My example here is the bands for making a drum, or Trommel, magazine for my treasured Marui Thommy:
The drums were made in 50- and 100-round versions. In real life, both were more deadly to the shooter than the shootee, they jammed like crazy, leaving you with at best, an improvised club...but I digress.
Rather than fight a strip of 3mm ABS into a band, I'll give it a shot of BTU's, and wrap it around something round, like this stack of MDF disks:
The strip, 20" x 1.70" was laid lengthwise in the oven on lower rack, and the oven light snapped on.
I only wanted the material SOFT, not MELTED! The first experimental parts looked more like egg noodles than drum bands.
So I watched as the strip "relaxed" and then flipped it over, and closed the door for a few more seconds.
Then, it was quickly snatched out and slapped around the form. Grabbing from the oven was done with bare hands, as the contact time was low, and heat doesn't "transfer" from ABS quickly, but holding it against the form (after a slight stretch to make sure it laid flat) required some oven mitts.
By the fourth try, I had it down to a process.
Finished bands, after cooling. even though I needed bands of varying diameters, I only used the one form, as ABS is pliable enough to be final-shaped in or out at gluing.
QUESTIONS?
I'm working on a freebie, WheelieKing frame, made from 1/8" ABS. you'll need to be able to do two bends to complete it (after cutting the part out). Hang tight, I'll get it posted up in a jif.
edit: Here ya go THIS IS MY OWN CAD DRAWING, BASED ON THE ORIGINAL LOCATIONS FOR THE STOCK HARDWARE.
This is meant as a starting point only, of course!
http://www.air-sharp.com/wkstartfile.dwg
I get asked about his quite a bit- everybody has a kitchen stove, and some have wondered: Can this thing help me make parts?
The answer: NO. Kitchen stoves are designed for the heating and cooking of things that are safe to consume and SMELL, i.e., Steak Tri-tips, chocolate cakes, etc. that being said, I've used my trusty Amana for worse...same goes for the ever-popular over-the-toaster trick.
Heating PLASTIC in your home immediately sets up DANGEROUS conditions. MOST plastics "out-gas" when heated, releasing volatile fumes, corrosive agents, not the building blocks of life. Sometimes, the mixtures can be deadly! A lot of plastics (thermosets) just won't melt or get soft, they'll char and go to flames first.
Like most Thermoplastics, once MELTED, ABS will puddle and bubble, and then
"spectacularly burst into sticky flames."
Yes, Mom would be mad.
So DON'T DO THIS yourself. Consider this information on how I play with fire, nothing more.
Most of what you need to know about ABS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abs_plastic
Buried in this info (actually in a link) is the "heat deflection temp" for ABS plastic. It's 185 degrees Fahrenheit. That means, at a uniform temp of 185, it can be deflected. Fancy way of saying "bent".
But you don't really want to fully heat a sheet, just bend it to your will.
This is an electric bending strip. Made of a teflon/fiberglass mesh, with a heating element woven into it.
http://www.interstateplastics.com has these in different lengths, this is a 24".
It's CHEAP UNDER $50 - get one, and skip playing with your toaster.
Making STRAIGHT bends is much easier if there is a groove ('kerf') routed into the backside of the bend. This is industry practice for making plastic structures.
It just takes a bit longer to heat through without, and a bit more care is required to get the bend positioned correctly, and be straight. Be sure to have scrap available to test with, that way you'll know how your actual part will behave in process.
Depending thickness, time will vary for getting the plastic to the right temp. Note the digital timer. By putting it in count-up mode for the first bend, I determined that 2.5 minutes were needed for full heating of a section this thick.
Then I just set up a count-down for the next parts, and was able to carry the timer while I did other small tasks.
ABOVE ALL, you don't want to become distracted and forget about plastic in-process. It only takes ONCE to really, really change your future. Please be diligently careful.
The finished bend.
So what ABOUT using kitchen appliances?
She's off, the mutts are locked outside, and the stove in the kitchen just got done making me some frozen meatpies from Costco. Rather than shut it off, I turned down the temp to 320.
I know, only 185 does the job, but it would take much longer to soften the part. The trick is to get the ambient temp around it a bit higher in the heater, so it all softens uniformly.
My example here is the bands for making a drum, or Trommel, magazine for my treasured Marui Thommy:
The drums were made in 50- and 100-round versions. In real life, both were more deadly to the shooter than the shootee, they jammed like crazy, leaving you with at best, an improvised club...but I digress.
Rather than fight a strip of 3mm ABS into a band, I'll give it a shot of BTU's, and wrap it around something round, like this stack of MDF disks:
The strip, 20" x 1.70" was laid lengthwise in the oven on lower rack, and the oven light snapped on.
I only wanted the material SOFT, not MELTED! The first experimental parts looked more like egg noodles than drum bands.
So I watched as the strip "relaxed" and then flipped it over, and closed the door for a few more seconds.
Then, it was quickly snatched out and slapped around the form. Grabbing from the oven was done with bare hands, as the contact time was low, and heat doesn't "transfer" from ABS quickly, but holding it against the form (after a slight stretch to make sure it laid flat) required some oven mitts.
By the fourth try, I had it down to a process.
Finished bands, after cooling. even though I needed bands of varying diameters, I only used the one form, as ABS is pliable enough to be final-shaped in or out at gluing.
QUESTIONS?
I'm working on a freebie, WheelieKing frame, made from 1/8" ABS. you'll need to be able to do two bends to complete it (after cutting the part out). Hang tight, I'll get it posted up in a jif.
edit: Here ya go THIS IS MY OWN CAD DRAWING, BASED ON THE ORIGINAL LOCATIONS FOR THE STOCK HARDWARE.
This is meant as a starting point only, of course!
http://www.air-sharp.com/wkstartfile.dwg
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