Replies

1. 
   davidmeiland | Mar 23, 2006 04:27pm | #1

   My electrician has a couple of things for bending PVC conduit, one is a box that you stick the pipe thru, and one is a big heating blanket.

1. 
   Brian | Mar 24, 2006 03:46am | #2

   my local rental yard rents the thing David's friend has - call around...

    Treat every person you meet like you will know them the rest of your life - you just might!

2. 
   philarenewal | Mar 24, 2006 11:45pm | #3

   There's a United in town but I don't think they have what you want -- they probably do have a PVC conduit bender, but it might not be long enough for the bend you are trying to do in a long Trex plank.  Maybe give them a call; never know. (215) 744-4510.

    

   "A job well done is its own reward.  Now would you prefer to make the final payment by cash, check or Master Card?"

3. 
   Shavey | Mar 25, 2006 02:27am | #4

   Go to trex`s home page and ask them for the bending techniques info , they show a big round tube 20`` dia (probably metal) and they cut rebars and poke holes in the tube and slide the rebar in the holes to form a shelf in side the tube,Then they place a 100,000 btu heater at the end of it for any where from 30 min to an hour  depending on how well the system is built. You also have to seal one end of the tube with plywood. They also show the big  water tank method of steaming it but it looks like its about 12 ft long  with a propane tank on the end of it( not your every day piece of equipment )if you know what i mean...

   
   

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   Edited 3/24/2006 7:28 pm ET by Shavey

1. 
   IMERC | Mar 25, 2006 02:38am | #5

   the last word I had from Trex is if you delibertly reshape their product...

   all warrenties implied or otherwise are null and void... no exceptions...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->

   WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->

   Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

1. 
   Shavey | Mar 25, 2006 03:06am | #6

   Well thats the price you have to pay for putting curves into a deck....I`ve always been curious as to how the frame will be built are there any special techniques that are involved

1. 
   IMERC | Mar 25, 2006 03:24am | #7

   12" OC.... sorrta the norm...

   close that up for more radicle curves...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->

   WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->

   Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

2. 
   USAnigel | Mar 25, 2006 05:37am | #8

   looks like it could be fun building the "oven"

4. 
   jayzog | Mar 25, 2006 02:49pm | #9

   I built an oven to bend Azek,I'd assume it would be good for trex also.

   I made a plywood box 12"x12" x 12' long, with a hinged top.

   In the bottom section I installed 2 salvaged  6' electric baseboard heaters after removing the thermal overlod protetors.

   Used wooden sticks as supports just above the baseboards to support the stock.

   About 20 minutes in the oven was perfect to get Azeck to the recomended 300º

   Cost- $20 for wire to get to the panel, I bought 1 sheet of ply $25, the rest was scrap/salvage.

1. 
   USAnigel | Mar 25, 2006 04:19pm | #10

   Thats what I was looking for, quick cheap and does the job!

2. 
   Databoy | May 11, 2006 06:12pm | #11

   Can you tell me about your Azek bending project? I have a 4-part deck railing to build, and thinking about using Azek. It's about a 9' radius.Nick

1. 
   jayzog | May 22, 2006 05:23pm | #13

   Here is a picture of the porch that I built the oven for, and a couple of pictures of the oven.

   The rail is cedar ballusters & sub rails, everything else , post wraps ,caps , top cap of the rail, crowns fascias, is all Azek. The radius is about 5' .

   
1. 
   Databoy | May 24, 2006 02:25am | #14

   Hey, thanks, jayzog. Pretty funny how you overcooked the material. Is that trex or azek? I posted a pic of my oven (an old I-beam mounted sideways on a boat trailer and fired by gas from below). Worked ok, but takes a LONG time to come to temperature... and a pic of some trex in the jig. Don't know if they will go with this post- never posted pics before.Niko

   
1. 
   rez | May 24, 2006 02:42am | #15

    

   half of good living is staying out of bad situations

   
2. 
   USAnigel | May 31, 2006 02:35am | #16

   Any known reason for the trex cracking at the bottom of the picture?

3. 
   rez | May 31, 2006 03:41am | #17

   Missed that first time thru.

   View Image

   Beware. RFID is coming.

   
4. 
   Databoy | May 31, 2006 02:35pm | #18

   Yes, the material was not hot enough. This was my first piece. It felt ok, but after I put it on the jig and pulled it into position with clamps, it failed. Some suggestions: First, heat and bend only the shortest pieces you need. This was a 16 footer which I then cut into smaller sections. It was too hard to handle, takes longer to heat and requires 2 people. Secondly, use thin rips between the blocking on both sides of the heated piece (not present in this pic). This avoids the bulging and indenting of the trex by the blocks.
   Nick

5. 
   jja28 | May 22, 2006 01:43am | #12

   We use a 12 inch diameter duct. I think it's about 10...maybe 12 feet long. We lay a piece of 8 1/4 inch hardi plank siding in it to act as a shelf. Plus the stuff doesn't burn. We'll put one or two short pieces (1 - 2 feet) of hardi at the far end to cover the end of the tube, and using two of them makes it easy to open up the end to adjust it for how much heat you want to hold in there, or let escape, etc.

   We use a propane heater on the other end and blow the heat through the duct. Slide the piece of azek onto the hardi and fire up your heater. About every 5 minutes we move the heater out of the way, pull the azek board out and then turn it end to end. The end closer to the oven tends to heat up and "start to melt" faster than the one on the back end. So turning it end to end helps you achieve a more uniformly melted (for lack of a better word??) trim piece.

   We do this 4 or 5 times maybe...for a total of anywhere up to about 20-30 minutes. A lot of it will depend on the size of your heater, the size (diameter and length) of your pipe, the size of the azek trim, etc.

   Each time you pull the piece out to reverse it, you will start to feel it getting softer, mushier, etc. When it gets to where it's like spaghetti, you know it's ready to mold to whatever shape you want. Depending on how long the trim piece is, you may need a 2nd person to help you. As you pull it out of the oven, he/she will have to grab the other end of it and then you two will kind off walk around, etc so that you can slide your end in first again.

   Once it's ready to go, slide it around the piece you want to form it to. For example, if you're making a trip piece for the top of a curved radius window, start from one end of the window and pull the azek around the board and let it form to the window as it stretches itself.

   We've noticed that just about everytime we do this, the ends of the azek get a little crisp, burnt, deformed a bit from when that end is closer to the heater. Because of this, prepare to waste a bit of material and make the trim piece longer than what you think you'll need, cause odds are you'll end up cutting off part of the end of the board. Also, sometimes if it's in the oven to long, the grainy side ends up melting to almost a smooth surface so if you want the grainy side out, you gotta watch that a lot closer, maybe not let it heat up so much, etc.

   The first time we did this (the azek rep came out and showed us onsite), we did it on a window that was already installed. That was a pain in the rear though, cause once we got it out of the oven, we had to pass it up to the guys on a plank, and then they shaped it to the window. After that first time, we decided to shape it on the ground before we installed our window(s). Made it much easier. We just laid down a piece of plywood, put the window down on top of that and then did it right there. One more thing...USE GLOVES..haha

   Hope this helps.