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bending straight drinking straws


bobblem73

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I know it sounds dumb  but I'm wanting to bend some small straight drinking straws. I want to use them to feed lighting cable through to make some led coach lamps, the idea is then to wire them to 2 1.5V batteries I'm fine with the electical side (side effect of tinkering for years) but I would like to cur the straws so they the look like brackets. I did think about putting some copper wire and the lighting wire through them and then warming slightly and bending to avoid creases in the straw.

Anyone else tried this or can think of a better way

I have tried brass and aluminium tube but I only have a cold former use for rc planes and it tends to split trying to get tight curves

Thanks in advance

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I would think plastic straws would fold rather than bend or curve. But there might be something you can do. People who want to change the leg position of their plastic Breyer model horses do it by applying heat to the joint that needs to be changed. Very, very hot water or in the case of a straw, perhaps a match or fire starter held need the section that needs to be bent might do the trick. Remember, you're just trying to get the straw pliable, not melt it or anything else. Besides, plastic can release some really toxic chemicals if it burns, not to mention smelling like a million wet dogs. There are a lot of Breyer horse fans in the UK. You might want to contact them and see exactly what it is they do.

Another thing that may work (and I'm just shooting off the top of my head here) is to run something soft, like cotton batting or something else though the straw to prevent its folding when you bend it. Would running the wires through with the cloth in a straw be a fire risk? I have no idea. But that's all I can think of at the moment.

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Are you referring to a small plastic hollow coffee stir?  I've tried that. Too much heat from a flame will melt the insulation around the light's wires which may cause a short.

Try "Shrink Tubing". It is heated with a blow dryer around the prebent wires.

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55 minutes ago, rodentraiser said:

Maybe I can attribute that lapse to old age.

I refuse to admit I'm old enough to invoke this excuse. :D 

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