The first thing you need to bend acrylic is an acrylic bender. You can buy one for 200 dollars or you can build one. I suggest building one since it is a lot cheaper. I built mine using a heating element strapped to a board. All of which I purchased at a local supplier. The element sits between two boards that are attached to a main board with a gap between. The element sits about 1/4″ down from the top surface of these boards. This way you can heat the plastic without melting it to the element. I covered the boards in tin foil to help protect them from the heat and also to reflect the heat more toward the acrylic… Thanks jher! [via] Link.
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We bend 1,000’s of acrylic displays at our shop with element heat bars. We have also had success with bending “in the field” with paint removal guns. The keys to bending this way is that you need to move the gun evenly until the plastic heats up.
If you have access to laboratory equipment, nichrome wire used with adjustable volt/amp equipment works well.
We bend many different things, sign holder, brochure holder, poster holders with nichrome wire bars. Check out some of our items at
http://www.pop2go.com
One of the biggest problems is with the acrylic curving or bowing. We found the solution for this is to curve it the opposite way while cooling.
You can get more information on this subject at http://www.pop2go.com