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Hi I just bought these acrylic rods for a project as part of the creations of bile army I am making. I want to twist the rods into a triple helix and my think I probably need to add some heat to shape them. What’s the best way to do that without destroying them? I feel like a flame or soldering iron would burn them. They are very thin 1.6mm

Best bet would be a heat gun, then warp them round something like a wooden peg or dowel.

I don’t have a heat gun, what about dipping them in boiled water out the kettle?

Acrylic will soften at 100C but you may still get stress fractures that cloud the plastic when you try to bend it.

A heat gun really is the proper tool for this.

Or a hairdryer...?

 Good Old Murray wrote:
Or a hairdryer...?

It can work for maybe 1 or 2 rods in 10~15 minute sessions.

Any more and the hairdryer can and will overheat and break (because it's not designed to maintain high heat for a prolonged periods of time). Lost 2 hairdriers this way before investing in a heat gun.

Cheap heat guns will run you about $20~$30, which is a price of a hair drier if you break yours by using it like heatgun (not to mention the gak you're gonna get from your mom/sister/girl friend/wife for breaking it in the first place).

I managed this with a tea light and it’s a rough version of what I want. Maybe moe patience to do it better.

Would a hair dryer get hot enough considering it’s for your head

mrFickle wrote:
I managed this with a tea light and it’s a rough version of what I want. Maybe moe patience to do it better.

Would a hair dryer get hot enough considering it’s for your head

From my experience, 2~3 minutes of hairdryer gets you few seconds of malleability for 1/32" thk acrylics.

If you're going to twist your rods like that, you'd want a heat gun.

I've definitely got questions about your chocie of material... Acrylic isn't really appropriate for that sort of thing. Acrylic only really bends nicely if you are heating it in a smaller area. It'll bend very nicely along a straight line with a hot wire, if you're looking at bending sheet material, for example. I think it's too ductile for you to get a good result bending it in the way you are attempting...

If the colours don't matter to you (though I assume they do) copper or aluminium wire is the way to go.

If the colour does matter, maybe try something like coloured Scooby Strings? (if you're anything like me you'll remember them from your childhood, lol) They come in every colour under the sun and are very flexible. Get some kind of brass rod or similar rigid core, and coil the scooby strings around and glue in place. Should be very easy and fit what you're trying to achieve.

I wanted to add something to my CSM units for my creations of bile to make the unique for that army. I bought the rods hoping to make something that looks like it is an injection device for the battle stimulants that bile makes to enhance hi warriors.

So I thought if I could that the three colours twisted and then cut into short actions and then a bits of green stuff etc would look good. I’m also looking at just sticking them together straight. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea at all haha