BriskHeat RH48 XtremeFLEX RH Plastic Bending Strip Heater, Strip Heater, W x L: 0.5 x 48-Inch, 120VAC

This worked awesome for making straight 30" long 90° bends on 1/4" PVC foam sheet. Easy to to install on plywood. There are tutorials on YouTube on how to do that. I do wish the power cord was longer.Some people are intimidated by the electrical connections but they are completely safe. Unless you want to use it in the bathtub it something like that. Not something I'd let kids use unsupervised as it does get hot. If you need to make long straight bends in just about any plastic I'd get this. 1/4" is the maximum thickness

I have a 36" version of this since for me, anything less (24" version) just isn't useful.You should know what this really is before buying it, which is why you are reading this.The ribbon itself works pretty well. It should be stretched out to get a nice straight heated line. But if you stretch it too much, you reduce your heating width, which can be a good or bad thing. The good is that it reduces your bend radius. The bad is there is less heat there so you don't have a lot of time to setup your bend.Besides a raw heating ribbon, my only complaint would be that the wiring is a but ghetto. the two ends of the ribbon contain half if a 120vac plug. After stretching out your ribbon, you bring the two ends (wires) together, put them together and plug the resulting plug into the wall socket (yikes) or into a power strip (better but not by much).The alternative is to pay another $200 for a ribbon fully enclosed in its own aluminum housing.I purchased my first 36" ribbon from Tap Plastics (logical starting point) for about $75 + tax and shipping. I paid about $60 + tax (free with Prime) for this 48". I just got the ribbon and haven't used it yet, but since I already have experience with the 36" counterpart, I figure this wouldn't be any different.Oh, by the way, when heating, make sure it is never unattended since it is a direct load across your house current and should be left to preheat for about 5-10 minutes (covered to prevent heat-loss). Then lay your plastic sheet over the ribbon, covered, checking it periodically for pliability. Have some compressed air handy to cool the work piece in its final shape.

I needed to bend some wide ABS plastic sheets. After following the directions for building the bending platform (very necessary to keep the heating strip from making contact with the plastic) I experimented with a scrap piece to see how long it would take to soften the plastic. It only took a couple minutes. I would add some staples to the bottom of the groove where the heat strip lies because the fiberglass cloth does not conform well to the contour of the depression so it raises the strip up which did melt a part of the plastic because it touched. You cannot see this happen until the opaque plastic is being lifted.

The product picture for the RH48 looks like a finished product, ready to use out of the box. That was my expectation, at least. Well, I was wrong.When you order an RH48, what you get is a heating element, plus some instructions, "How to Make a Strip Heater for forming Acrylic Sheet." This requires materials not listed on the product description: a 54" strip of 1/2" plywood, two 48" strips of 1/4" plywood, Fiberglass cloth (I used  Bondo 499 Fiberglass Cloth ), heavy duty aluminum foil, a ground wire (2 ft of wire was enough for me), a screw and washer for attaching the ground.Also, since the power cord included is just long enoughfor the two ends to connect in the middle, an extension cord came in handy. I terminated my ground wire with a bolt that would fit snugly in the extension cord's ground. Amazon's  Stanley 060864R Folding Sawhorse (2-Pack)  made a perfect platform for using the strip heater.After all the hassle, performance of the heater/bender was not great. The fiberglass and aluminum foil covering the center groove put the heating element on an uneven surface, which meant uneven heating of the acrylic sheet, resulting in overheating/bubbling in places while other areas were just getting hot enough to bend.All told, having to build the heater myself was a lot of time, money, and hassle, with sub-par results. If you have scrap plywood laying around, and a shop to work in, then this might be a good option if you're looking to save some money. But if you just want to bend some plexiglass, and you have a little more money than you have free time, then DEFINITELY buy a strip bender ( 4 ft. Strip Heater for Bending Plastics ) that is assembled and ready to use.

Wow. I built the strip heater per included instructions. I didn’t believe this 1/2” wide strip would reach 473 degrees. Heated my 1/4” thick HDPE board to 228 in 20 minutes. Great for hobby and occasional use.

Two thumbs up 👍👍

We could not use as the individual plug in leads were to short to reach each other. Can be fixed easily, but just spend the extra money and get one with the bar so you don't have to fix this. Its unusable as is.

My recommendation would be the various sizes like 12 inches. 24”, 36” and 48”. Would be easier for smaller plastic parts to bending. 48” long heater required bigger setup and taking bigger space.