My first attempt at heat forming a flange on a tube =/

Acrylic when heating is like trying to form a rubber band! I pull on it and it gets to the shape I want then I stop pulling and it snaps back to near its original shape. Using more heat helps but I get a few bubbles in the acrylic. Puling too far doesn’t work out well either as thats when its shape went fubar and folded over on itself. In anycase its a learning experience. BTW: this was a 1” tube not a full sized tube

What heat source are you using ?

1400 watt “Wagner Power Stripper” with only a low and high setting.

I would try making a last/former of the shape I wanted to make the flange, then try pushing it into the bottom of the tube as I heated it with a paintstripper hot air gun. Just a thought as to how I would try to do it. I’ve never worked with acrylic though, so it may be a non-starter of an idea.

Getting better… The bubbles are from the tool I am using (I think). It absorbs heat from the heat gun and transfers some of that heat to the acrylic causing the bubbles. The piece with tons of bubbles is what happens when the acrylic overheats and spins out into a disc shape on its own. Its a pretty fine line between having enough heat and too much when using a heatgun with only 2 settings!