Building New Tank: Bending Acrylic?

[rippedbx]

I am building my first tank for freshwater and need some advice. My dimensions for the tank will be: 22" tall, 36" wide and 60" long, but... the tank will be in a triangle shape. My goal is to bend the hypotenuse piece inward to allow more room in my living room (less room for the fishies) and I think it will look really cool. And I'm planning on 3/8" thick acrylic.

My question is this: Can the piece just be bent with pressure, clamped in place and then "bonded"? Or do I need to bend the piece with heat so that will be its new "natural" shape?
Also, any tips for creating a good angled edge for the pieces to bond to?

Any tips , ideas, or previous experience would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance! And I'll be sure to post some pics once I can figure this out and get started.

[Judge]

Welcome Rippedbx to FTF. All great questions about a very interesting idea..wish I had some great answers!! I am sure someone will wade in with some ideas and please..maybe some pics all along the way could show the rest of us how this might be done.

[rippedbx]

thanks for the welcome! I'm a college student and my roommate and I are building this tank. He's had several large tanks but this is my first. I'm the handy one so I've got to figure out how to build it. I figure it will be about 85 gallons but will appear bigger.

I'm pretty nervous about heating the acrylic. I really trying to avoid deforming or ruining it in any way because its a large piece and fairly expensive.

anyone bent acrylic or even heard about how its done?

[Jay]

I have had lots of experience bending acrylic. Working with pieces that large really require a fabricated form to hold the bend while the acrylic hardens. Plus with bends over 90 degrees you are really stressing the acrylic. You would also need to miter the edges to be joined in order to chemically join them.

You are also going to need a very precision cut on the bottom piece which will also need to be chemically bonded to the upright piece.

I would go to a plastics fabricator and explain what you want and get a quote on them doing the bending or fabrication...you can do the assembly which will be essentially chemically bonding the seams (gluing).

Hope that helps...

Jay

[rippedbx]

Originally Posted by Jay

I have had lots of experience bending acrylic. Working with pieces that large really require a fabricated form to hold the bend while the acrylic hardens. Plus with bends over 90 degrees you are really stressing the acrylic. You would also need to miter the edges to be joined in order to chemically join them.

You are also going to need a very precision cut on the bottom piece which will also need to be chemically bonded to the upright piece.

I would go to a plastics fabricator and explain what you want and get a quote on them doing the bending or fabrication...you can do the assembly which will be essentially chemically bonding the seams (gluing).

Hope that helps...

Jay

thanks for all the info! I was planning on using a miter saw to cut the corners so that each edge sits flush. I've thought about having a professional fabricate it but I think half of the fun of having the fish tank is building it myself.
I am planning on bending the large front piece using a space heater and heat gun. I will be supporting the sides and hopefully, downward pressure and heat will cause the acrylic to have a permanent slight bend.
Jay, you brought to my attention an idea about bending the corners. Could I bend 2 of the corners and then have a 180 degree seem? It seems that I could get a better seam out of 180 degrees versus the angled seam.

see attachment for an idea of what I'm trying to do

[Jay]

I see where you are heading, but I do not think a space heater and heat gun will do it...far too little control over the length of the bend. If I were going to tackle this I would probably use a heat tape made for bending acrylic along a long line.

This stuff is not like bending metal, once you get it soft you are going to have a long hot, floppy, stretchy area. The wider the heated area the harder it is to control. That's why I am suggesting jigs and forms.

Jay

[rippedbx]

Originally Posted by Jay

I see where you are heading, but I do not think a space heater and heat gun will do it...far too little control over the length of the bend. If I were going to tackle this I would probably use a heat tape made for bending acrylic along a long line.

This stuff is not like bending metal, once you get it soft you are going to have a long hot, floppy, stretchy area. The wider the heated area the harder it is to control. That's why I am suggesting jigs and forms.

Jay

gotcha. Going back to the drawing board now...