Forming ABS with a heat gun !

[Ypedal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO0sWTiHZAc&list=UUJCgYcCXBAuxEgVT1bpMnyQ&index=1&feature=plcp

[youtube]oO0sWTiHZAc[/youtube]

 

[Ykick]

'been considering battery enclosures and I keep coming back to possibly bending some plastic? Thanks for the how to!

 

[Brentis]

That awesome.
Lets see some more vid.' of the completed process.
Great job as always Gaston.

 

[Ypedal]

this one goes back to 2010 !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ik-wqRNFSE

[youtube]6ik-wqRNFSE[/youtube]

 

[Ypedal]

the pack build itself is here :
http://ypedal.com/Cyclone/cyclone4.htm

And the 2012 mods are here :
http://ypedal.com/Cyclone/cyclone5.htm

 

[Dee Jay]

So you're using a relay to switch from one pack to another?

 

[Ypedal]

nope.. using a relay as a contactor, on/off between pack and controller..

 

[Dee Jay]

really good idea on paralleling 3 poles to get 40 amps through it. Been thinking of using relays to bypass weak cells in a pack but thought unsolderd contacts would burn out... they're aging cells anyway so now I decided on rebuilding them into unsoldered packs for easy rearranging and to weed out the weak cells.. if you really think about it, you're already pumping lots of amps through unsoldered contacts AKA Anderson connectors so it should be possible to run on unsoldered cells especially since I only run no more than 20 amps tops..

 

[Dauntless]

I won't deny using such nonsense as a heat gun or candles or propane torch when I was growing up, but that's a disasterous way to do it. If you're trying to make a single bend you need a strip heater. All the controlled heat raising the tempurature right where you want the bend to be and NOT heating irratically along a wavy path. Ideally you need to stop heating it at the forming temperature to prevent monomer bleedoff, (Cracks, crazing, bubbles, etc.) but good luck judging the temp. Basially just keep flexing it and letting it go and when it doesn't just snap right back to the old shape that's about ready.

If you don't want to pay nearly $240 for this one, http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=291&PHPSESSID=201203282224231568928160 then for $74.95 you can get just the element and build your own. http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=169 Or if you have an old wall heater from your bathroom with a heating element strip you could remove you could build it with that.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-man-s-200-dollar-plastic-heat-strip-for-penni/

I don't even want to watch that video because I can't believe a person who uses a heat gun knows his thermoforming. I'm most accustomed to sheet acrylic, but I've stooped as low as to use styrene. Keep in mind that plastic has a forming temperature, a melting temperature, and a burning temperature. All that means is if you go above forming temperature where you want to bend it or if you even get to forming temperature where you don't want to bend it you've ruined the sheet of plastic. You get it to the point where you can bend it and you WORK FAST.

If you take two pieces of wood with maybe some cloth wrapped around it you pinch the plastic between them right where you want to bend it. If you want to bend 180 degrees you can take the inner piece of wood off after bending the first 90 then bending all the way and pressing it between the wood blocks. If you want a 90 degree bend, a 3rd piece of wood can press the perfect bend.

You could shape a box by cutting out the shape such as a tictactoe board with the 4 corner squares gone, then bending the 4 side squares up. But that gets tricky. You would probably want to hot gas weld the plastic together, also known as plastic welding. But without the bending you could just plastic weld squares together to form the box.

One better way to do this could be vacuum forming. http://www.instructables.com/pages/search/search.jsp?cx=partner-pub-1783560022203827%3Anpr2q7v5m6t&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=vacuum+form

Another would be casting. Oh, casting can become VEEEERRYYYYY useful. This company has all sorts of video for you, let's start with mold making. http://www.smooth-on.com/media_video.php?category_id=1&category_name=Basics Of Moldmaking Videos

I'm partial to casting urethane parts. But silicone is a terrific mold, though not as durable if you need many.

 

[Ypedal]

good info there !!!... awsome

I actually have a strip heater, purchased like 4 years ago :lol: .. the heat gun gets it done...

I have a large sheet of polycarbonate in the garage, but the ABS is scratch proof and hides the birds nest ell..

This was a learning process :
http://www.ypedal.com/Chaos3.htm