STEP 2: Pumping iron – bending styrene
6. I attached the styrene H-beam to the template
using masking tape on one side. Bending the
beam around the template several times before
dipping it into boiling water helped shape it.
6
With the template done, I began to bend the H-beam.
The prototype H-beam is bent over its flanges. This
is much easier than bending over the web. The tricky
part is to convince the styrene beam to stay in its
rounded shape, as it tends to flip back to its original
shape. To succeed with this task, it is good to know
that styrene has a weakening point at approximately
176 °F (80°C), depending on its composition and mate-
rial strength.
