Can plastics be straighten up.?

[frosty44]

Hi  guys
      Has anybody tried straigting playfield plastics  and been successful, and if so what are your methods.
I have a set of meteor ones that are twisted bad..

[Homepin]

yes - warm gently in an oven that is NOT too hot until they start to look a little saggy and then place them between two heavy books to cool

A process NOT for the faint hearted as too much heat and they will be toast!

[pinball god]

Set to 150c or lower and watch them like a hawk. Once they flatten out or close to, then put between to sheets of glass and let cool. The secret is don't cook them to the point they bubble. If your not happy with the first result, try it again. Better a couple of small goes than one long failure. I have cooked too long and its not pretty and the difference between perfect and disaster can be a matter of seconds. So watch all the time

[pinsanity]

An oven with a warming top/drawer and a metal baking tray with something heavy and flat stacked on top.

The warming top/drawer doesn't get hot enough to melt the plastic, but is enough to make the plastic malleable.

[Pop Bumper Pete]

80-90 degrees is all you need
I lay my plastics on a small piece of tempered glass, that way they come out flat

[frosty44]

Thank guys I'll have a go right now.

[Ballywannabe]

As you know, Frosty, I am from the heat gun school. I heat them up until they flatten then put them between two pieces of laminex benchtop cutouts (nice and heavy) and let them cool.  Between two pieces of playfield glass works well too.

[pinball god]

To state the obvious...... fan forced not top elements. 

[ddstoys]

I used to use the oven but have also had good results with a heat gun aswell

[Pintoxicated]

100 degrees C for me.  Lay them on a baking tray with something like baking paper over the tray.  DO NOT put the plastics in front of a fan in the oven is fan forced, it will heat the plastics unevenly and whilst the front may look OK, the back near the fan will bubble very quickly out of nowhere and the plastic will be ruined.

As soon as the plastic starts to flatten out in the oven, remove them and lay flat on the kitchen bench with some weight on top of them.  They will cool down and harden in a matter of seconds so no need to leave them too long before you inspect your handy work.

[rustalan]

Yep Heat gun for me......on low ...aim at the bend gently moving to and fro not to close and testing rigidity every few seconds. Once it starts to flatten then in between a flat and heavy objects for 10m or so. Works a treat.
 

[Mr Pinbologist]

I've never been game enough to try using an oven, so i too am a fan of the heat gun method.

[vinito]

+1 for heat gun. Not that the oven method wouldn't work fine - I just never tried it.

In my experience, I heat them up til they flatten themselves out good on a piece of glass then sandwich them under heavy stuff until cool. Also, in most cases for me I had to do repeat once or twice more for them to actually be flattened, but it's pretty safe and it eventually worked.

You do have to be careful to move the heat gun around and heat evenly. Linger too long in one spot and it WILL start to scorch the edges. Just keep it moving and heat evenly and it's pretty safe.

[frosty44]

Thanks for all replies.
I ended up using heat gun method(oven frightening) with two old playfield glass as work bench,once warmed up I placed plastic between glass and carried on to next one and so on.  I did use a silicon roller to roll plastics out flatter when warm , but gently otherwise your plastic will stretch it all seem to work out fine fo me..

[Dluth]

I put my plastics between two pieces of glass and then put the iron on low heat and sat it on top of the plastics until warm. Then put a pile of heavy books on top. All came out perfect.