acrylic rod bending for stands

I've used clear acrylic rod to display a couple of planes in mid air. At the time I had a guy who was making clear cases for me and he provided the rod; I used 1/4". Unfortunately he has disappeared and there goes my source. I would suggest getting out the yellow pages and calling some plastic/acrylic suppliers. As to bending the rod, I used the wife's hair dryer and gently bent it into the shape I wanted. One thing to remember is to take into consideration the weight of the plane. For example, I wanted the F-16 I was mounting to have a slight nose up angle. I bent the rod into what I thought would work (I had already drilled the 1/4" hole in the walnut base), but when I attached the plane to the rod and the rod to the base, I had a nose down angle due to the weight of the plane. I had to start over, but on the second try I succeeded.
As to getting two pieces bent with the same curve, I would tape them together and use the hair dryer on both pieces at the same time.

Matt

I did a quick search here in the forum and came up with this:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/101-200/tnt106_DisplayStand_Chung/tnt106.htm

Someone else mentioned somwhere that you can get acrylic rod at a Michael's craft store.

Do an advanced search in the forum for "display stand" and "plastic rod" and you may find more info. I only looked at one topic.

PS - If you search for "acrylic rod" you'll get about five pages of topics. I didn't wade through them, as many titles didn't seem to pertain, but maybe they do.

Hope this helps

stinger

Mattp:
That was me that sent you the suggestion regarding Michaels, also a suggestion for a bending jig, back in your A/C forum thread.
Regards,
Bruce

thanks for the ideas guys.

ive had a plan for the base, but wasnt sure how to bend the acrylic. i'll post pics when i get it all done. still have a ways to go on the model first - just wanted to make sure it was doable how I wanted before I went and glued the gear doors shut and whatnot

QUOTE: Originally posted by B. LeCren Mattp: That was me that sent you the suggestion regarding Michaels, also a suggestion for a bending jig, back in your A/C forum thread. Regards, Bruce

Bruce - It was you who recommended Michael's, but I was referring to your reply to a post back in Sept.

See here:
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7661

Dick - I like your idea of using the hair dryer. Much more controllable than the oven technique in the link I posted above.

Matt - Yeah, Buddy, let us know how it turns out!

stinger