Project: Deuce

Hehehe, thanks guys!
Yeah, practice pieces will be key. Remember all that debris from a few posts back?? Well.... "I Have scrap to test with..." ;)

Holy crap this is awesome...Awesome job TD!

*finally* had both time and weather!

Acrylic is not something I like to muck with when it is pretty cold... I feel like it makes it more brittle. Might be just me, but if I am going to be working with my only 2 copies of my rad stand, I'm taking every precaution, real or likewise... that could make the flames unexpectedly snap....

Well, this last week was busy, then I got clipped with a cold, and that yanked the batteries for about 3 days. Feeling a bit better, the weather warmed up... so I put in a few hours in the garage!

Using a combination of bits, I slowly and carefully worked my way around the acrylic, sometimes using a fine tipped engraving bit, other times using a reinforced wheel... and I started making progress"
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand8.jpg

I had to put a light underneath the acrylic to make out the cuts that were completely through, and then focus on the areas that were still hung.
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand9.jpg

Some of the chunks coming off...
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand10.jpg

Here you can see how I was using the light to path the cuts:
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand11.jpg

Ohhhhh daaaaamn.... almost there!!!
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand12.jpg

3 hours later, the 1st one if free!!!!
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand13.jpg

No broken flames, everything successfully released! I have a bit of careful filing and some polishing to do, but otherwise... HELL YEAH!!!!!

now.. add into this wonderful weekend of success, my wife opted to give me my birthday presents early (Later this month on the 21st) and she landed a 22" wide screen LCD on my lap today! Also got me an MP3 player so that I can listen to tunez while I work out! (I have *got* to get into better shape!)

So.... I'm ecstatic this weekend!

Wow, toys and a successful cut-out all in one weekend. You are truly blessed my friend! :D

Can't wait to see the final "bent" outcome on those flames. (That is what you said you are doing right?)

I am with James, you are truely blessed. WoW, your wife knew what toys to get and your cuts turned out looking good. Cool idea with the light.
Give us a clue where you plan on bending the Flame.

Good Job TD..

You have some mad skills!! :eek:

Any updates TD.. I don't want to sound pushy but I am really curious about how the bending progress. Still have my fingers crossed for ya..:p

Hehehehe... I did a couple of test pieces the other day, TAZTG, and they did what I'd hoped they would do. I will however, have to build myself a wooden jig to mimic the rad's size for most of the bends. I'll have to do this due to the heat that I am having to apply to get the acrylic to bend is significant. and long in duration... I certainly dont want to damage the rad.

So, since my RL job is such a time leech, it will be a few days until I get the bending jig built.

Apologies for the lack of updates!
Thanks for the good luck! I'll need it!
;)

Groovy.

Lots of heat and homemade jigs = fun pics for us sometime soon.

I can wait. (But not too long.) :D

Just take your time.. I have a Heat Gun if you need to borrow another one. LOL Seriously, can you provide details of the heating process. I am thinking with the amount of heat you will need would some kind of furnace would be beneficial or would direct heat be better for bending a specific area. Have not done to much anything with acrylic thats why I ask.

:) :)

Typically, when making longer bends, I take the heat gun and depending upon how sharp I want the ben, I may get directional nozels attached to slim down the heated air into a more controlled and narrow focused "beam" of heat.

The experiements I tried were using less focused, more generalized heat application. I want to get a cone on my heat gun to focus the heat. My current attachments dont fit this gun.

What you want to do, is heat the acrylic ot the point it is pliable, but not to the point it is liquid. To get 1/4" acrylic to that temperature, throughout the 1/4" of material, is a bit difficult. What I found was that by having a small weight source on the end of the acrylic that I was trying to bend, when I saw the weight start to dip, then I knew the acrylic temperature was nearly ideal.

Too much heat and the acrylic acts like liquid and start spreading out the material, which with the flames cut out, and the tight intricate spaces.... if the acrylic started to flatten and engulf those spaces, it could be disastrous.

So... I'll keep practicing!

I think you would have been better off bending the material prior to cutting. The bend is going extrude the outer edge and slightly warp the flames, this could cause breaking in thinner pieces of material where the extrusion force is higher than the chemical bond strength of the material at a given temperature.

Good luck and dont forget to support your material on both sides.

Given my limited exposure to resources, it would have been preferred to do what you state, but impossible to cut after said bending. Thanks for the tips!

Took the day off from work today to celebrate the ol B-Day, and what better way, than to move ahead on the mod! ;)
First thing up is that in order for me to get most of these bends proper, I build a wooden jig that I could heat the acrylic up on and not worry about damaginf the joints in the rad. Last thing I wanted to do was do something that caused joints in the rad to unsweat...

1st pic is the acrylic laying ontop of my wooden rad/bending jig:
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand14.jpg

Started heating the corners and applying even pressure to the side:
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand15.jpg

http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand16.jpg

Eyeballing the other side.....
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand17.jpg


And my first 4 bends are completed! YAY!!!! (wipes sweat)
http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand18.jpg

http://www.tech-daddy.com/wlog/deuce/rad_stand19.jpg

Tomorrow, I'll try to get the rad into the acrylic and see how sturdy this is, and what I need to do to get it mounted into the roof section. I've got a plan, I just have to see if it will work! ;)

I've still gotta finish the bends to see how well it attaches to the top of the case... I may end up having to remake this acrylic to a different dimension. If I have to do it again, then you can count on the fact that I will use a local water jetter to cut this (same person that did DST). Or else I will have to source a larger wattage laser cutter. I already have the sheet of acrylic ready if this does not turn out well, but I'm going to do my very best to make this work! I am certainly not going to waste all the effort that my friend put into cutting this!

Damn, I'm happy to have finally bent this stuff!

Oh yeah, and to pinpoint the heat, I used a propane torch. My heat gun was too broad. I needed pinpoint heat application to make sure I did not have unnecessary bowing and shift in the acrylic.

:eek:

So cool looking....

:eek: