I want to learn how to alter acrylic tubes to put all the neat little twists, bubbles, and shapes in the tubes. Thing is... nobody has any information I can find -__- Unless I just don't know the magic words or something. Since google has failed me though I thought I'd come here and see if maybe someone else could enlighten me. I don't know if the pieces you buy in the store are just molded that way at a factory or if there really is a way to make them from home. I've found all the pieces I need to put one together, just don't know how to warp the plastic the way I need. Anyone think they could offer some help? Please and thank you.
In school whenever we made something out of acrylic we used proper like industrial machines, I don't know whether there is any safe way to shape them by hand.
Would you have any idea what the machines were called? Might have to see if I can try some different search terms to find anything. I was wondering though, if there's a way to evenly heat a section of the plastic until it was malleable could you maybe put some rings or something on either end of the heated section to provide a crisp edge, plug one end of the tube, and blow through to other the expand the walls and create a bubble or be able to put a bend in the pipe? No idea how I would go about heating it, I was just wondering if it was possible to, shouldn't this work in theory?
You can definitely form acrylic at home. Here's something I'm working on kinda sloppy but its my first try
I used my stove haha, I turned it up to high and then just rotated the tubing over top of the heating element until it was soft enough to bend it. Gotta do it right though cause if you hold it over for too long it starts to form little bubbles. could probably be avoided by turning the heat down though. Then its just about drilling holes and gluing it up with acrylic cement.
