Working with styrene

I have been doing alot of scatchbuilt modeling with wood and am starting to do more useing styrene. can anyone tell me where on the net i can find tips for heating and bending styrene to shape it. i have the book from Evergreen products and it was rather vauge.Any help would be great.

Steve

Steve, Here is a quote I found a long time ago. It may help you in your search. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)
"get into plastic forming and even have to heat bend it at times to get the contour I may need and I bought a plexiglass heated bender for it and works great! I could take a piece of pipe, real steel pipe, and lay it on the bender and let it get hot and lay a piece of evergreen plastic sheet on the pipe and in about 15 to 20 minutes that piece of plastic looks like a round pipe actually used to form a plastic boiler for a loco if needed on a special application"

Since I work with glasses we have these cool forced air heaters to shape frames. Perfect for that kind of stuff.
Zac

Jim
Thanks for the very profound quote. it took me a few times reading it to give me direction and it was helpfull. I happen to be a pipe fitter/steam fitter by trade so this gave me many ideas. Thank's again

SteveB)

Zac
Thanks for the tip. The plexiglass heater are a little to pricey for me but the tip may give me some ideas

Steve

Don't know why a heat gun wouldn't work. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

A safe and reasonably foolproof way of bending styrene is boiling water. Immerse the part in the boiling water for about a minute (I use tongs to hold it). Remove, then immediately bend it--go a little further than the desired shape, as the styrene will tend to spring back. Hold it in position until cool.

David
Thanks' for the tip. i will give that a try. one question. will the plastic loose its shape at that temperture or just get pliable?

Steve:)

slugger wrote:

one question. will the plastic loose its shape at that temperture or just get pliable?

It will not lose its shape, and in fact at 212 degrees F (100 C), styrene is only moderately pliable, so the technique is best suited for relatively thin pieces (but I like using water because you can't accidentally overheat the plastic and melt it). However, bending styrene by applying any kind of heat will cause the shape to distort a little at the bend. For example, the edges of a rectangular strip will curl away from the bend slightly, and you may need to sand the corners to make them square again.

David
I will definently try this method. It sounds like the best way to not disform the styrene. when I have tried this method, i will let you and everyone that has helped with tips on my results. thanks again

Steve

i ve been doing ALOT of plastic bending these days,, it depends on the thickness and what your trying to bend. i ve been putting angles in I beams using the heatgun methods, it works great, but you have to be on your toes as it melts, it can get overly plyable and ruin the I beam all together. i ve never tried the water idea,, but it is a great idea, i do have to try it. now for doing sheets into things, i m a furniture designer, and use alot of veneers. i devised my own vacuum forming machine using a flat electric frying pan and my vacuum machine. i ve seen it done with an old vacuum also. heat the plastic in the electric pan, flip it onto what your going to press, slip the clear box over the plastics edges, and vacuum out the air. materials were found at garage sales, so it only took 2 buks to make. lastly:side: theres an old mattel machine on ebay, made in the 50s for vacuum forming small pieces, my buddy has one and swears by it.

i hope i ve helped a bit,,ever need pictures of my vacuum device,, email. canada mike

MIKE
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas on this subject. i have tried using a hair drier and i understand what you mean about to much heat. my brother has a heat gun he used for scraping old paint so i'll give it a try. I will let you know my results. Thanks' again

SteveB)

The heat gun may be enough on hopper cars & gons if you want to give them the beaten look. You only need to bend the top rail where an operator dropped a bunch of stuff on the car. The heat gun may be enough to make the sides of a hopper pliable to make small bulges in the metal.

I typically use a heat gun to bend my styrene parts and pieces. Depending on how delicate the part is depends on how much heat I give it. Can be tricky! The water method I have not used before but will definitely try in the future!

As far as roughing up a gondola, I've read about people using soldering irons to modify the sides to look realistic. From the photos I recall viewing, they did an excellent job. It has been several years though since reading about it. Was either here on ZCS or on Trainboard(perhaps even in the N scale section).

As far as vacuum forming, I fabricated a box that uses a cast resin negative mold, that is interchangeable, with the household vacuum cleaner. Using the 3M blue painters tape I secure a desired piece of clear plastic to a wooden frame, heat it with a heat gun, and when the entire piece of plastic is sagging from heat and gravity, I place it on the cast resin mold, where the vacuum is running, and the sheet is immediately pulled into the negative mold!!! 30 seconds later I am popping the newly formed clear sheet out of the mold! It may sound simple, but thru trial & error I have made it so. Lots of wasted clear sheets in the past!!

All in all, Styrene is my choice of scratch building.

Hobo Tim

Tim
Thank you for the imput on my question. Your method of vacuum forming sound very interresting. If it isnt a trade secret could you show a diagram or photo of your vacuum former and how it works. Thank you again and i look forward to your reply.
Steve aka. "Slugger"

Steve,

Unfortunately, my vacuum former is in Georgia while I am here in Texas. It is rather simple though. I took some of the white "Elmers" foam core board, made a box using hot glue, cut a circle in one end a bit smaller than the end hose of the vacuum cleaner, and on top, an area of about 3"x6", cut out the inner section leaving enough space on each side to mount some 3M double sided tape.

I will make a positive of what I want to make a mold of(using styrene), pour a large RTV mold around that, and then cast resin inside of the RTV mold to make the negative mold. I then drill tiny holes through out the resin mold, namely in all the corners and apply it to the double sided tape. The Former is cheaply made and works well for what I use it for. Actually have been getting away from using it and making cut-outs with gray foam instead.

The use of the vacuum mold was to make inserts for MTL cases. That is my extent of vacuum forming.

I wish I had some photos of it to show the simplicity of the machine!!!

Hobo Tim

Tim
Thank you for the details.Yourself and the other members of Z central have been a great help and source of influence. I have hope that I can become as good a modeler as the people I have meet here.
Steve aka "Slugger"

vacuum forming is just like using the vacuseal to suck the air out of your 3 inch steak, so it wont freezer burn. i ve even watched people use a vacuum bag unit to pull out the air bubbles out of the plastic molds. go to www.aluminite.com they have many demos on molding and using poly molds. then go to www.joethewoodworker.com. he ll show you exactly how to build a vacuum unit,, even sells parts, motors, everything that a woodworker would need to build their own vacuum presses. then modify it to what you wanna do. i spent 88 buks canadian in parts to build my own,, i used it for veneering, til i got into z scale. now its mainly for molding everything from z dogs to lime loads to building my own cars !! check it out. canada mike