Hey Everyone, I’ve been reading around her for a while now and have started working on a pack but I run into the problem that I need a heat gun to shape my plastic but have no idea what to choose. I thought maybe one of you vets might have some suggestions of a tool that won’t lead me astray.
Well just about any heat gun will work just fine… I suggest unless you have another use for it or expect it to be a tool in regular service just pick up a cheap one…
Beware though shaping plastic with a heat gun isn’t exactly straight forward… The plastic will turn to a noodle in a split second, and or will blister/bubble very quickly if you apply too much heat in one area… Wear some good leather gloves, and if the situation allows have someone with a spray water bottle full of water that can cool off the piece once you remove heat and have it in position…
Depending on the plastic you might be able to simply boil the part in water and get it to a stage that can be shaped…
if you have and old oven (fumes come off that stuff, so you might not want to cook in there afterwards) heat the plastic to 200 F (or whatever the directions say–depends on thickness) on a cookie sheet. Take it out (wearing gloves) and plop it over your form. This gives a more even heating than a heat gun, but still not as good as a vacuum former set up. Heat guns shoot heat forwards, and have 2 settings (well, mine does anyway). One is about 400 F and the other is 1000F. The high setting can be used to soldier pipe!!! It will melt plastic like hot butter. I tried (unsuccessfully) to heat/shape acrylic with a heat gun. It would get a little soft in the center, and bent in a weird way (maybe this is “noodling” mentioned above?) I don’t have an old oven, or I would have use it.