Wiki
Overview
This bender uses a nichrome wire to heat a long section of material, and once hot can help you bend to an angle. Useful for bending both acrylic and 3d printed parts.
Simply connect a power supply to the wire near the screws, or closer together if you want to get a shorter region hotter. Do not touch the heater wire, and try not to let your material touch it somehow either.
Use the nichrome temp calculator to determine what kind of power you need to run through the wire. The distance between the hinges is 24″.
The wire expands significantly on the side with the spring so if you want to use the full length of the wire like in the following images it’s important to connect the leads as shown (polarity doesn’t matter just notice the settings and the placement of the gator clips):
Location
In the Laser Area. Either against a wall, or hung by the twine. Power supplies are in the electronics room.
Training
Just watch this gif (and DO NOT TOUCH THE HEATER WIRE): [Full Video]
Calculate your settings, connect the power supply, turn it on to heat, turn it off when hot, and then bend your material into shape before it gets cold.
Tips
Consider clamping the material to the wood while bending. Clamping a stop block to the wood can help you get very repeatable results. Heating a section and then bending it a lot quickly can be an easy way to ‘cut’ a piece of material.
Do not touch the heater wire.