cherokeered Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 (edited) When working with Styrene rod, what is the best way to bend/form the rod in order to make roll cages/exhaust? I have been using a lighter but I have noticed it produces not only black marks on the rod which needs to be cleaned off but more importantly it produces the burning plastic smell which I can imagine is very toxic to breath in. I have seen several roll cages etc. on this forum that have no black marks from a flame and was wondering if there is a better method to bend styrene rod/tube that I am not aware of? Edited June 17, 2012 by cherokeered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I'd also like to hear more on this. I always use the slow bend method which can be hit or miss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I bent some thin rod a while ago by placing in it some very warm (hot) water. It worked ok. I would like to hear a good way to bend it also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitbash1 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I sometimes use a hair drier to bend styrene rod. I also use the hot water trick. Both work good on thin rod, the hair drier is best for thicker rods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I've always used lighter, and it works very nicely. Give as less heat as possible, so the rod just bends. If you give too much heat, it will turn into black and smell bad. Today I used that method with these tubings of the Beretta Bracket Car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greymack Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Hey guys a good tubing bending way is to use heat from a burning candle it works awosome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Kucaba Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 How about the heat radiated from a soldering iron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonFL Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Hey guys a good tubing bending way is to use heat from a burning candle it works awosome. Wouldn't this cause the same black and bad smells as the lighter? I guess the trick would be to do what Niko said and just use little heat at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 A couple of things to remember..... Roll cage tubing will almost always be 1.5" or 2" on a full-size car. That scales to .060" and .080" in 1/25. Those sizes can be bent cold, with your fingertips, SLOWLY and carefully. BUT, IF YOU GO TOO FAST, it will crack. After I make my bends, I run the part under HOT tap water, and hold it in position while it cools. That sets the shape pretty well. It WILL tend to spring back after a while, but if you glue it in place fairly quickly after bending, it's not a problem. The main hoop and the windshield post bars were done as I described on this model. Exhaust pipes will be from 1.5" on a stocker (or header primary tubes) to 2.5" (scales to .10" in 1/25) on something fast. You MIGHT see 3" tubing on a race car (.12" in 1/25). The larger sizes are a little too thick to bend cold, but the concentrated heat from an old blow-dryer is plenty. I made a small metal funnel from a cake decorating tip to go on the nozzle of the dryer. It works best to have the dryer in a vise so you can use both hands to make the bend, and the small opening in the funnel directs the heat EXACTLY where you want it. WARNING WARNING DANGER DANGER: The concentrated heat will burn your fingertips if you're not careful, but it won't "smoke" the plastic unless you hold it in the heat WAY too long. The funnel will also cause heat to back up into the dryer and sometimes cause it to shut-down automatically. The dryer is designed to do this if it overheats. As soon as it cools down, it will work again. BUT, you shouldn't have to run it long enough to overheat it anyway. It actually takes very little heat to bend styrene rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Like William, I bend styrene rod cold. I always bend it more than it needs to be so when it springs back,it's where I want it. When I'm finished bending, I'll take a hair dryer to it carefully to make the bends "set". It's much easier to control your bends without using a lighter or a candle. I've made some pretty complex bends on scratchbuilt headers and haven't had a problem yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesG Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 haven't tried it on styrene yet but I have a small butane torch I got at lowes. it has a push button start after a few seconds you can shut off the flame and just have the heat, it can be locked in the on position and can stand on its own. WARNING even with the flame off it can cause serious burns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Racer Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 I bent all of the rod on this cage by cold bending and then using MEK to weld it in place right away. Worked great. Larger tube if you use a candle and apply just a small amount of heat you should have no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Or just use aluminum rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffs396 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 For larger diameter needs, I like to use styrene tubing instead of rod, with solid copper wire inserted prior to any bending. You can bend to any shape you want with no heat required, and no "springback". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 (edited) Or just use aluminum rod. Though aluminum rod bends beautifully to any radius and holds its shape, I've encountered bonding problems with almost all of the adhesives commonly used on models. This isn't surprising, as aluminum "glueing" is well known to be problematic in the aviation and automotive industries, and special adhesives and pre-bonding surface treatments have been developed to deal with it. The limited bond area of a butt-joint at the end of a tube is a real problem with aluminum tubular-type model car chassis. Tacking aluminum chassis tubes together with CA and then creating a "weld fillet" with a slow epoxy has worked acceptably for me, but it's been much easier and quicker, and a lot less frustrating, to just use styrene for chassis work. One thing I've found aluminum rod does work exceptionally well for however, is exhaust systems. They're attached at the end of a build and don't get as much handling as a tubular chassis during construction. Edited June 22, 2012 by Ace-Garageguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Though aluminum rod bends beautifully to any radius and holds its shape, I've encountered bonding problems with almost all of the adhesives commonly used on models. This isn't surprising, as aluminum "glueing" is well known to be problematic in the aviation and automotive industries, and special adhesives and pre-bonding surface treatments have been developed to deal with it. The limited bond area of a butt-joint at the end of a tube is a real problem with aluminum tubular-type model car chassis. Tacking aluminum chassis tubes together with CA and then creating a "weld fillet" with a slow epoxy has worked acceptably for me, but it's been much easier and quicker, and a lot less frustrating, to just use styrene for chassis work. One thing I've found aluminum rod does work exceptionally well for however, is exhaust systems. They're attached at the end of a build and don't get as much handling as a tubular chassis during construction. Excellent points regarding aluminum rod and chassis work, but the original question was specifically in regards to roll cages and exhaust systems, where aluminum rod works beautifully, using either CA or epoxy as the bonding agent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 (edited) Harry, do you have a particular recommendation for CA and epoxy brands? I've not been getting good results with mine on 4043 aluminum TIG rod. And I should have said "with aluminum roll cage structures", rather than "aluminum tubular-type model car chassis." Edited June 22, 2012 by Ace-Garageguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cranky Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Some wonderful work in this thread. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonFL Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I'm still a little new to the scratch building game but do you all buy this Styrene rod or do you guys just use your old parts trees? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JunkPile Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 (edited) Store bought rods and other stocks are much more fun to play with than sprues or parts trees Edited June 22, 2012 by JunkPile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I'm still a little new to the scratch building game but do you all buy this Styrene rod or do you guys just use your old parts trees? Two suppliers I use for scale rod, tubing, structural shapes and sheet plastic are Evergreen and Plastruct. I normally buy it at my larger LHS, Hobbytown. Both companies have websites and both began business, to the best of my knowledge, making styrene parts (girders, columns, pipes, valves, stairs, etc) for industrial, engineering and architectural modelers who built scale models of things like oil refineries and skyscrapers before the days of CAD. I have an early set of several hundred plastic valves, from the '50s. http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/ http://www.plastruct.com/ The parts trees are generally way too large diameter for making anything other than maybe AC Cobra main frame tubes, or something similar. The rod, tube and structural shapes I mentioned above don't have parting lines or flash like parts trees either. Still, parts trees can be extremely useful for a variety of other applications like driveshafts, fire extinguishers, steering columns, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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