Bending large piece of Sintra?

[DR4296]

I'm reading-up a bit on Sintra and it's use in costuming.

I need to make a large barrel-shaped torso for a robot. I've read where you bend smaller pieces by inserting them into a pot of boiling water. But what about larger pieces? I've never seen the stuff in-person, so I don't have any concept of how stiff it is.

If you wanted to bend a piece that was, say, 4-5 feet wide by 2 feet tall into a barrel shape, how would you go about doing it?

Just trying to figure out if Sintra is what I need or should go with. I take it, even though it is technically PVC... if I go to some plastics website and order PVC sheeting, I'm going to get something with slightly different properties. ?


Thanks!

-= Dave =-

 

[BornKilr]

I use a heat gun to bend larger pieces of sintra. You may have to do it a bit at a time because it will cool off quickly.
I would try to get something the diameter you want, and heat the sintra, while rolling it around the cylinder, then tape it and leave it for a few days. It may still spring back some, but with 2 part epoxy, it will hold the tube shape fine.

 

[Killtime]

You could buy a thermal heater (infrared heater) that are basically like halogen lights that emit a shed load of heat over a wide area. I use one in the workshop during winter, works really well for getting it hot. Watch for distance though, will melt anything too close. It made a neat rectangle hole on a rubbish bin lid (around 4mm thick) when it slumped over within 1/2 a metre of the bin. So be careful if you use something like that to heat it up for bending.

 

[ManitobaMando]

Depending on the thickness of the sintra in use, at 4 to 5 feet wide and two feet tall, you dont need to worry much about heat shaping (1/8 inch or 3 mm would be great in this case). Simply fasten one end to the other. You could also use styrene for this and use 1/2 inch overlap for the ends to glue together.