Warped Plastic

[Anonymous]

Some of the pre-painted Walthers kits I'm building have walls/foundations that are slightly warped. How can I straighten them?

WALTHERS KITS NEED THICKER WALLS!!!!!!!!!!!

[rlandry6]

You might try putting the pieces in a clamp/jig and warming them with a hair dryer. Let everything cool down before you remove the clamps. Just a thought..

[pcarrell]

I have always used a hair dryer in the past. Oven mis can be quite handy don't cha know. Just be sure that you go slow and don't get it too close to your work, or you'll have much bigger problems if you know what I mean. [:D]

I've also heard about some people who have used very warm water to soften the plastic. I heard about this on the Scale Auto Enthusiast forum. It's a model car web site, but they do alot of the same things that we do including dealing with warped parts, weathering, and more.

[TomDiehl]

If you want an OLD method for straightening plastic, get two pieces of glass, larger than the part in question. Lay the piece to be straightened between the pieces of glass and sit them out in the sun. After straightening, take the unit inside and let it cool before taking it out from between the glass. The warmth of the sun softens the plastic and the straightness and weight of the glass do the rest.

Note: DON'T try this with Plexiglas or any clear plastic in place of the glass.

[mcouvillion]

You might want to be very careful when you heat plastic until it becomes pliable enough to bend. It won't be too much from being too pliable to lose its detail and be a mess. The glass method sounds great for large pieces without much detail. With details, the glass might flatten them when the plastic is warm enough to reshape. With a hairdryer, use a medium setting. You can reach the point of no return real fast on high (voice of experience!). The warm water method sounds good, but it would probably have to be much warmer than would be comfortable handling. Take your time and watch VERY closely. A cool water bath might be helpful as a means to stop excess deformation.

Mark C.

[ndbprr]

What may have happened is one side of the mold was cooler than the other side causing the concave side to cool quicker or the warp was from the way they were stacked in the box. The latter is easily fixed by supporting the esges and outting a weight in the center. If the flex can be removed by finger pressure I would glue a piece of thick styrene near the top and bottom (floors?) to pull it out of the wall. If it is top to bottom I would do the same thing with smaller pieces on both sides of the joint making a box beam. Box beams are incredibly strong. most people don't know that a 4" x4" is much less strong then a box beam made of 1" x 4"s with center open. Plastic is called plastic because it goes through a plastic state before melting. I have never had much success with trying to manually reach a low enough temperature in the plastic zone without causing major distortion and I hold several patents for plastic processing including the method to put the finish on vinyl siding.