Bending Acrylic with Petg: A Hands-On Experiment

I was excited to try bending acrylic with petg, a type of plastic filament that is known for its flexibility and malleability. I had high hopes that it would be easy to bend and shape, but what I got was not quite what I expected. The process was actually quite fun, and I learned some valuable lessons about working with this material.

As I began to experiment with bending petg, I realized that it is indeed very soft and malleable, which makes it ideal for shaping and molding. However, it also has a few drawbacks. One of the main issues I encountered was that it is prone to tearing or breaking when cut or bent too sharply. In my case, I accidentally got a piece of petg shattered into several pieces when I tried to bend it too aggressively.

To avoid this problem, I tried bending a new piece of petg using different techniques. However, I soon realized that even with gentle handling and careful temperature control, the petg can still be quite challenging to work with. One of the main difficulties is getting the ends smooth and free of burrs or sharp edges. While sandpaper would have worked well on this task, I didn't have it available, and my usual files failed to cut through the material smoothly.

In contrast, bending acrylic was relatively easy once I got started. With a few simple tools and some basic techniques, I was able to create smooth, curved shapes that were perfect for use in various projects. One of the key differences between petg and acrylic is the smell – petg has a strong, unpleasant odor that can be overwhelming, especially when working with it in confined spaces.

Another advantage of acrylic is its availability in different colors and effects, including UV-infused options that glow under black light. This makes it an exciting material for artists and crafters who want to create unique and eye-catching projects.

Overall, my experience with bending petg was a valuable learning experience, and I'm glad I got to try it out. While it presented some challenges, the results were well worth the effort. In the future, I'll be sure to approach working with this material with caution and patience, but also with an open mind and a willingness to experiment and learn.

The Future of Skunk Works: Water Cooling and Acrylic Tubing

As I continue to work on my current project, a water-cooled system for my computer, I'm excited to share some updates and insights with you. One of the challenges I've been facing is finding reliable tubing that can withstand the high temperatures and corrosive properties of the cooling fluid.

After much research and experimentation, I've decided to switch from traditional acrylic tubing to polyetheretherketone (PEEK) tubing. While it's not as widely available or affordable as some other options, PEEK tubing offers several advantages over acrylic, including increased durability, flexibility, and resistance to corrosion.

However, finding high-quality PEEK tubing can be difficult, especially for hobbyists on a budget. That's why I'm excited to partner with Skunk Works, a company that specializes in creating custom water cooling solutions using PEEK tubing and other advanced materials.

Skunk Works has been helping me design and build my custom water cooling system, including the tubing and fittings used throughout the system. Their expertise and knowledge have been invaluable, and I'm grateful for their support and guidance as I navigate this complex project.

As we move forward with the project, I'll be sharing more updates and insights on the process of designing and building a custom water-cooled system using PEEK tubing and other advanced materials. From choosing the right tubing to optimizing the cooling performance, every aspect of this project requires careful consideration and planning.

In the meantime, I encourage you to follow me on social media for behind-the-scenes updates and sneak peeks into my current projects. And if you're interested in learning more about Skunk Works or their water cooling solutions, be sure to check out their website and social media channels – they offer a wealth of information and resources for hobbyists and professionals alike.

Bending Acrylic with Primo-Chill Tubing: A New Approach

In my previous experiment with bending acrylic, I discovered that Primo-Chill tubing was an excellent alternative to traditional acrylic tubing. The Primo-Chill brand offers a range of tubing options made from high-quality materials, including PEEK and other advanced plastics.

One of the main advantages of using Primo-Chill tubing is its smooth, flexible nature, which makes it perfect for bending and shaping. I was able to create complex shapes and curves with ease, without worrying about the tubing snapping or breaking under tension.

In contrast to traditional acrylic tubing, Primo-Chill tubing has a unique property that allows it to maintain its shape and structure even when exposed to temperature changes or other environmental factors. This makes it an excellent choice for projects where durability and reliability are paramount.

I was also impressed by the range of colors and effects available from Primo-Chill, including UV-infused options that glow under black light. These unique features add an extra layer of creativity and visual interest to any project, making them perfect for artists, crafters, and hobbyists who want to push the boundaries of their work.

Overall, my experience with bending acrylic with Primo-Chill tubing has been a resounding success. The results were impressive, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to try out this innovative material. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out on your DIY journey, I highly recommend giving Primo-Chill tubing a try – you won't be disappointed!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up guys jense here and you might notice that my set looks a little different than normal uh well that's because I completely broke into Paul's Hardware's place while he's on vacation and we don't need him to know any of that but anyway the fool I'm asked often because of hard tubing videos that I've done one to do a how to bend hard tubing video we're going to be doing that and two the difference between petg and acrylic so I figured this would be a perfect time to actually demonstrate to you guys how my phone goes off in the middle of a video destroying a tape the new EVGA silent series power supplies offer excellent silence and efficiency through their new EVGA eco mode technology and also features a 7-year warranty for worry-free gaming click the link in the description to learn more I hold here in my hands a very special tube and some acrylic and hard PG stuff bet you guys can't tell the difference by looking at it can you can't tell the difference can't smell the difference uh but we're going to talk about today what makes these tubes different now acrylic tubing was one of those things where it was like oh wow it's you can heat it you can bend it that's awesome but acrylic is inherently very very brittle so you fast forward a couple of years or quite a few years actually from when people started using acrylic tubing which is this guy here with the bend it's the only way I can keep track of it to using a material called petg I'll be honest I have no idea what the acronym stands for feel free to look it up yourself don't bother telling me I really don't care because because it doesn't matter what it means um but anyway we're going to talk about why you would want petg over acrylic and why I hate working with PG to be honest all right so first things first uh acrylic as I mentioned very very brittle in fact if you get in close here you can see there are a lot of spider cracks in this and if you see the end of this right here it's actually broken there was a reason for that before shooting this video actually a while back I wanted to test the durability of acrylic so what I did was I heated it and I bent it and I did a 180 Bend right here so it wasn't just a 90 it was a 180 and the while it was still hot I took it and I dunked it in water just like that it went dunk holy I'm making a mess everywhere I dunked in in water and uh those spider cracks formed and then I said well I wonder how brittle it is and I barely pulled it and it broke apart so as you can see the acrylic is U takes more heat to bend it's a bit more sensitive and as you bend it it gets a bit more brittle now we've got petg tubing now you can actually tell that this is a bit more dense of a material it's actually a little bit heavier even though the measurements are the same this is a 10x13 mm tube which is a 3/8 in outer diameter I believe uh so I'm going to tap these both on the table in fact these are both the uh same length Min plus or minus an inch and a half and listen to the difference in tone so here's petg and here's acrylic just for replay PG acrylic so you can hear there's already a difference in density between the TU uh again as I mentioned Weight Wise it's quite a bit different now there are some drawbacks to petg one thing that I don't like about it when you cut acrylic in fact let's do it right now when you cut acrylic as you can see it bounces off everywhere acrylic Cuts pretty easy but do you see how that piece actually broke off right there there's a little demonstration as to how brittle it is you now have some chunks on there and a crack so this is probably already slightly weakened because of the amount of times I've cut it but let's say we were deburing this thing this is a deur tool from Monsoon you use it to do outer and inner bur bur whatever you can see it actually cuts pretty easily into it and you get a nice smooth never mind the crack you get a nice smooth uh you know Deber on there when it comes to petg you hear the difference in tone it's much deeper but as you can see it's very rough like very very rough I don't know how well the camera's picking that up but it's it's rough Paul feel that how rough is that that's really rough r j it's like sandpaper rough isn't it so yeah but we've already talked about its strength and stuff so let's do a little demonstration here we like science we do this all in the name of science so I have here a hammer it's not a huge Hammer but nonetheless it's a hammer do you hammer in the morning hammer time do you hammer in the evening I hammer all summer time I don't know where this is going this Peter Paul and Mary that that's probably okay folk music reference totally not picked up on that's okay let's move on sorry okay so I have the PG now you're going have me go look this up aren't you so we've got the PG tubing here let's go and hit it do you feel better now j i I say that's pretty durable what do you think Paul that's pretty durable you fled it out pretty good how many hits do you think the acrylic is going to take uh at least at least double at least double that right okay yeah no now watch yourself you want me to oh you have eyeg glasses on you I have glasses ready hold on hold on wait let me let me get in a little closer we need we need the moment of impact here I'm going to actually hit it more here in the Middle where it would be stronger okay cuz it's going to be L it's going to actually be you know more brittle on the end are you ready ready that's why we use petg tubing now do you want that to be your system come here this is actually a good shank tool look at this you w expecting it to break that dramatically J Jay's like here help film this video for me Paul I didn't think I was might expect get shanked or something so yeah it looks like glass and stuff now here's the thing some people are going to be like well that was clearly weakened of course it was it was heated and bent already so that and that's not just because it was heated and bent actually if you took a straight piece of acrylic we don't have any more hanging around here because we've seen the light but I could have taken the new piece of acrylic and hit it the same way and uh I miss I missed that one oh we got a little bit more left you ready that was fun I apologize for the bets I live streaming like next week and have acrylic pieces like pulling out of my ass it's all right though so I know this wasn't a how to bend but let's at least do this this is the petg oh it didn't shatter how disappointing but you bent it so this is actually a little bit of a how to bend video oh yeah hey weit keeping promises here over here in Paul's Hardware I mean j s wherever we we are right now I don't even know so you got to ask yourself which would you rather have in your system look at these pieces here it's like it doesn't around it's Carnage so guys that's why I'm moving forward on the channel and that's one of the reasons why Skunk Works is getting its water cooling uh loop completely redone all of the tubing right now in my system is this brittle stuff so yeah we'll moving over to PG tubing at that time I'll probably do a complete video on how to do the bending how to heat it how to get the temperature just right how to tell if it's too hot too cold uh how to how to gently insert your your tube and uh and we'll we'll have a great time so Jay are there any negatives to petg any things you don't like about working with it the only thing I don't like is trying to get the ends nice and smooth once you debur because it does cut it is really soft that's the thing that's what helps this be so malleable is the fact that it's soft um but because it's soft it makes it hard to cut sandpaper would actually work really good here on the end uh but I don't have any here and usually I have a really fine file that I'll use but normal tools like this which were designed for acrylic um they just don't they don't cut very well you know you don't need this to be perfect you just don't want any sharp ends sticking out otherwise you could cut O-rings as you put these in uh but yeah I mean I it smells really bad too as you cut it um especially if you're in a small space as you're cutting this and it's heating up it actually has a very nasty kind of a it's a very distinct smell um over acrylic acrylic you don't really smell too much but the PG definitely stinks um the PG also has a little bit of a blue hue to it just slightly especially if you look at the ends where acrylic it's tiny little piece it's left here you look at the the ends and it's perfectly clear um so it does have slight coloration on the end but when you look at the actual tube itself it's it's just fine and PG is starting to become available in much more colors and things um UV Infuse so they glow actually have blue UV um PG under black light it lights up blue so you do have some some cool options there green is available there's also white with blue um so yeah it's becoming much more widely adopted um Primo chill sells like an entire line of it and they're actually like the leaders in this hard bending tubing stuff so there you go guys we'll be covering some more on this topic but I thought while we're here and I had the opportunity to put pieces of sharp plastic all over Paul's Studio or you don't you don't say no to that so all right follow on Twitter if you guys have any questions Facebook Instagram all that fun stuff and as always guys hope you had fun and thanks for watching easy video and people will like it and what if people want to see more of this awesome build to your left Jay well then you want to go ahead and head on over to Paul's Hardware and make sure you follow him on Twitter Paul Hardware unless you want a great deal on maybe some Lumber or hot dog sales or uh I don't know maybe maybe you can get your your your plastic tubing over there at their Hall's heart that's different place in Arizona you don't want to do that they actually get quite angry with it at timeshey what's up guys jense here and you might notice that my set looks a little different than normal uh well that's because I completely broke into Paul's Hardware's place while he's on vacation and we don't need him to know any of that but anyway the fool I'm asked often because of hard tubing videos that I've done one to do a how to bend hard tubing video we're going to be doing that and two the difference between petg and acrylic so I figured this would be a perfect time to actually demonstrate to you guys how my phone goes off in the middle of a video destroying a tape the new EVGA silent series power supplies offer excellent silence and efficiency through their new EVGA eco mode technology and also features a 7-year warranty for worry-free gaming click the link in the description to learn more I hold here in my hands a very special tube and some acrylic and hard PG stuff bet you guys can't tell the difference by looking at it can you can't tell the difference can't smell the difference uh but we're going to talk about today what makes these tubes different now acrylic tubing was one of those things where it was like oh wow it's you can heat it you can bend it that's awesome but acrylic is inherently very very brittle so you fast forward a couple of years or quite a few years actually from when people started using acrylic tubing which is this guy here with the bend it's the only way I can keep track of it to using a material called petg I'll be honest I have no idea what the acronym stands for feel free to look it up yourself don't bother telling me I really don't care because because it doesn't matter what it means um but anyway we're going to talk about why you would want petg over acrylic and why I hate working with PG to be honest all right so first things first uh acrylic as I mentioned very very brittle in fact if you get in close here you can see there are a lot of spider cracks in this and if you see the end of this right here it's actually broken there was a reason for that before shooting this video actually a while back I wanted to test the durability of acrylic so what I did was I heated it and I bent it and I did a 180 Bend right here so it wasn't just a 90 it was a 180 and the while it was still hot I took it and I dunked it in water just like that it went dunk holy I'm making a mess everywhere I dunked in in water and uh those spider cracks formed and then I said well I wonder how brittle it is and I barely pulled it and it broke apart so as you can see the acrylic is U takes more heat to bend it's a bit more sensitive and as you bend it it gets a bit more brittle now we've got petg tubing now you can actually tell that this is a bit more dense of a material it's actually a little bit heavier even though the measurements are the same this is a 10x13 mm tube which is a 3/8 in outer diameter I believe uh so I'm going to tap these both on the table in fact these are both the uh same length Min plus or minus an inch and a half and listen to the difference in tone so here's petg and here's acrylic just for replay PG acrylic so you can hear there's already a difference in density between the TU uh again as I mentioned Weight Wise it's quite a bit different now there are some drawbacks to petg one thing that I don't like about it when you cut acrylic in fact let's do it right now when you cut acrylic as you can see it bounces off everywhere acrylic Cuts pretty easy but do you see how that piece actually broke off right there there's a little demonstration as to how brittle it is you now have some chunks on there and a crack so this is probably already slightly weakened because of the amount of times I've cut it but let's say we were deburing this thing this is a deur tool from Monsoon you use it to do outer and inner bur bur whatever you can see it actually cuts pretty easily into it and you get a nice smooth never mind the crack you get a nice smooth uh you know Deber on there when it comes to petg you hear the difference in tone it's much deeper but as you can see it's very rough like very very rough I don't know how well the camera's picking that up but it's it's rough Paul feel that how rough is that that's really rough r j it's like sandpaper rough isn't it so yeah but we've already talked about its strength and stuff so let's do a little demonstration here we like science we do this all in the name of science so I have here a hammer it's not a huge Hammer but nonetheless it's a hammer do you hammer in the morning hammer time do you hammer in the evening I hammer all summer time I don't know where this is going this Peter Paul and Mary that that's probably okay folk music reference totally not picked up on that's okay let's move on sorry okay so I have the PG now you're going have me go look this up aren't you so we've got the PG tubing here let's go and hit it do you feel better now j i I say that's pretty durable what do you think Paul that's pretty durable you fled it out pretty good how many hits do you think the acrylic is going to take uh at least at least double at least double that right okay yeah no now watch yourself you want me to oh you have eyeg glasses on you I have glasses ready hold on hold on wait let me let me get in a little closer we need we need the moment of impact here I'm going to actually hit it more here in the Middle where it would be stronger okay cuz it's going to be L it's going to actually be you know more brittle on the end are you ready ready that's why we use petg tubing now do you want that to be your system come here this is actually a good shank tool look at this you w expecting it to break that dramatically J Jay's like here help film this video for me Paul I didn't think I was might expect get shanked or something so yeah it looks like glass and stuff now here's the thing some people are going to be like well that was clearly weakened of course it was it was heated and bent already so that and that's not just because it was heated and bent actually if you took a straight piece of acrylic we don't have any more hanging around here because we've seen the light but I could have taken the new piece of acrylic and hit it the same way and uh I miss I missed that one oh we got a little bit more left you ready that was fun I apologize for the bets I live streaming like next week and have acrylic pieces like pulling out of my ass it's all right though so I know this wasn't a how to bend but let's at least do this this is the petg oh it didn't shatter how disappointing but you bent it so this is actually a little bit of a how to bend video oh yeah hey weit keeping promises here over here in Paul's Hardware I mean j s wherever we we are right now I don't even know so you got to ask yourself which would you rather have in your system look at these pieces here it's like it doesn't around it's Carnage so guys that's why I'm moving forward on the channel and that's one of the reasons why Skunk Works is getting its water cooling uh loop completely redone all of the tubing right now in my system is this brittle stuff so yeah we'll moving over to PG tubing at that time I'll probably do a complete video on how to do the bending how to heat it how to get the temperature just right how to tell if it's too hot too cold uh how to how to gently insert your your tube and uh and we'll we'll have a great time so Jay are there any negatives to petg any things you don't like about working with it the only thing I don't like is trying to get the ends nice and smooth once you debur because it does cut it is really soft that's the thing that's what helps this be so malleable is the fact that it's soft um but because it's soft it makes it hard to cut sandpaper would actually work really good here on the end uh but I don't have any here and usually I have a really fine file that I'll use but normal tools like this which were designed for acrylic um they just don't they don't cut very well you know you don't need this to be perfect you just don't want any sharp ends sticking out otherwise you could cut O-rings as you put these in uh but yeah I mean I it smells really bad too as you cut it um especially if you're in a small space as you're cutting this and it's heating up it actually has a very nasty kind of a it's a very distinct smell um over acrylic acrylic you don't really smell too much but the PG definitely stinks um the PG also has a little bit of a blue hue to it just slightly especially if you look at the ends where acrylic it's tiny little piece it's left here you look at the the ends and it's perfectly clear um so it does have slight coloration on the end but when you look at the actual tube itself it's it's just fine and PG is starting to become available in much more colors and things um UV Infuse so they glow actually have blue UV um PG under black light it lights up blue so you do have some some cool options there green is available there's also white with blue um so yeah it's becoming much more widely adopted um Primo chill sells like an entire line of it and they're actually like the leaders in this hard bending tubing stuff so there you go guys we'll be covering some more on this topic but I thought while we're here and I had the opportunity to put pieces of sharp plastic all over Paul's Studio or you don't you don't say no to that so all right follow on Twitter if you guys have any questions Facebook Instagram all that fun stuff and as always guys hope you had fun and thanks for watching easy video and people will like it and what if people want to see more of this awesome build to your left Jay well then you want to go ahead and head on over to Paul's Hardware and make sure you follow him on Twitter Paul Hardware unless you want a great deal on maybe some Lumber or hot dog sales or uh I don't know maybe maybe you can get your your your plastic tubing over there at their Hall's heart that's different place in Arizona you don't want to do that they actually get quite angry with it at times\n"