Bending ABS

[Drobie]

Is there a certain tempature that you can heat ABS to whereby it becomes pliable for a few seconds and you could bend it?

I'm working on some scale driver figures and am wondering if there is a way to heat their arms and bend them.

[Randy Naylor]

At 415 degrees the ABS is in a butter stage. Sometimes what I will do is with a tourch I will heat the aera and use a tool to push it. It will have some soot on it to clean up. To do fine bending the heat needs to be constrated, there for a heat gun will not work.

[Drobie]

I'm looking for something less than butter.

I just want to be able to move something a little without losing the overall shape.

Although I mentioned ABS, to be specific, I'd like to be able to move the arms of a styrene scale figure to grab a steering wheel.

Any ideas on that temp?

[T.S.Davis]

Doug,

From what I've read there are many blends of plastic. Each company has it's own take on it. The local plastic supplier near me sells Prime Impax which is their version of high impact polystyrene. According to the booklet I picked up from them, HIPS is supposed to be formable at 260 to 360 deg. Their utility grade ABS has the same form temp. It's quite a range. I vac'd the ABS at 325 but should have went to 360 for better detail. Hope that helps.

Terry

[Drobie]

Thanks guys.

The part I'm specifically dealing with is from an Airfix kit. Although nothing specifically indicates the type of plastic, there is a passing reference to polystrene.

I can test on some of the pieces I'll never use. Sounds like the high 200's to low 3's is a good place to start.