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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Oven Forming Acrylic


zachb520

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Probably not the last two, but everywhere I look online I keep finding warnings about heating and forming acrylic in an oven, saying that it accumulates explosive/flammable gas that can do very bad things when inside an oven. Anyone had these kinds of problems (kitchen blown up, etc.)?

 

Thanks for the input,

Zach

 

Aquaria central

this is a site that says what im talking about

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Socalsuperhero
yeah, ive been reading that thread a lot, but i didnt see that post i don't think. i guess the moral is as long as you're careful it'll be alright? and even if youre not...it'll smell??

 

When i did mine I didn't have any problems with odors or smells. Just to be on the safe side I would recommend keeping the area well ventilated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been using the wifes oven(s) for years and years, for heating and bending acrylics and haveyet to have aproblem. Yes, it may smell but if the oven door is left open the smell goes away....However if yu have built up crud, the smell permeates that crud and it will hang around much longer, so make sure your wife keeps a cleanover for you to use ;-)

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You'd probably be safe with an electric oven. Unless the flash point of acrylic is close to 320 degrees. The flash point of the gas (or vapor) reaseased fron the acrylic is what's going to get you.

 

Very interesting idea. I'll have to try this some time. I've always bent my acrylic with burning alcohol.

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what about using like a propane or any other portable tourch to just lightly fan over the acrylic and u or another person bends it over a mold or what not

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The gas is a real danger when using closed ovens (acrylic is formed in at lkeast an open style open). It probably also depends on size of oven as well as how big of a piece you're heating.

 

I wonder if periodically opening the oven to diffuse the vapors would help lessen the danger, along with open windows & fans if you really wanna get serious about it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I wonder what gas it produces. There are some respirators out there that will filter out many harmful gasses and are fairly inexpensive. You could hook up a closed loop filtration/circulation system to remove some of the explosive gasses. Just an idea.

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"hey honey! I can explain. The holes are to remove the smoke from the oven coming from your meals as their burning....er...i mean cooking."

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Von digity

How big a piece are you forming? You can use an old toaster oven if its small enough of a piece. They are cheap, have temp controls, and you don't have to worry about getting melted acrylic inside your nice oven, which could stink for a long time.

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What about using a propane torch (the large kind used for melting ice) and from a distance, slowly heat it up. Or would the acrylic yellow?

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If you have a good grill that disperses heat pretty evenly, then you can just do your acrylic outside, if it will fit. Most grills have vents, and would be a lot less risk, imho.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@warr40

 

I used a run-o-the-mill propane torch to bend one piece of acrylic into 3 sides of a small tank. Bend a few test pieces first. I found that the closer I held the flame to the acrylic along my bend, the more bubbles showed up in the bend. Try it out sometime...I'm sure practice makes perfect.

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