Bending the Outer Shell

Materials/Parts

 * Shell piece from laser cut parts

Tools

 * Carpender's square
 * Razor blade
 * Heat strip bender (we use a Formech FLB500)
 * Bending guide

Procedure

 * 1) Begin heating the strip heater.  For the Formech FLB500, a setting of "5" on the heat dial is desired, and should take about 15 minuets to reach full temperature from startup.
 * 2) Prepare a bending guide that will be able to hold the heated acrylic so that it is bent at just less then 90 degrees (perhaps around 87 degrees).
 * 3) Using a razor, etch lines in two places along the length of the shell on the opposite side of the logo (which will eventually be the inside of the shell) as shown.  A carpender's square can be used to etch the lines at right angles to the forward and aft edges of the shell.  These lines will be used to assure the piece is being bent in precisely the right spot
 * 1) Remove any additional backing on the shell
 * 2) Make a note of the minute and second, and place the shell -logo down- onto the heat bender so that one of the etched lines is aligned with the heating element strip heater.  The shell should be in roughly the center of the heating area.
 * 3) After 2 minuets has passed, verify that the plastic is easily bendable over the heating element and carefully lift the shell off the heater from one end.  If the shell is not yet flexible, ad time as needed until flexibility is achieved.  Make note of how long this takes so that the same timeing can be used for the other bend.
 * 4) Immediately after removing the shell from the strip heater, bend it by hand along the etched line (with the line on the inside of the bend), being vary careful to assure the etched line is co-linear with and in the center of the bend
 * 5) Place the shell on the already prepared jig and hold until cool (no longer flexible)
 * 6) Repeat steps 3-8 for the other bend line.  Be sure to place the shell on the strip heater for the same amount of time as the previous bend or bend radii may be different.

What if I don't have a Heat strip bender
If you do not have a heat strip bender you can still bend the shell, just need a bit more work. You have two options:
 * Bending plastic with a hot gun
 * Build your own strip heater