Most scale models won t need bends in acrylic more than 1 16 inch thick.
How to shape plexiglass sheets.
It is also easy to clean plexiglass sheets and maintain them.
Hold the heating gun approximately 4 inches from the line and direct the heat jet slowly back and forth along your line.
This should include any interior cutouts corners etc.
Mark the shape with a black felt tip pen.
For instance the smallest complete circle you could form with a sheet of plexiglass 1 32 inch thick would have a radius of 5 6 inches.
If you have a toaster oven set it to about 200ยบ and leave the door slightly ajar.
For a thin sheet of plexiglass that is material up to about 3 16 inch thick use a scoring method not dissimilar from a technique used to cut actual glass.
Lay the sheet on a flat surface and.
Place the part of the acrylic to be bent just above the open door wait for it to soften enough and then bend it to the angle desired.
Place the plastic sheet on a cookie sheet and place in an oven set to 250 f.
Moreover clear acrylic sheets can easily be cut down to accommodate whichever shape and size you want.
The size shape and optical requirements of the formed part generally.
Acrylic sheet for better energy efficiency.
Attempting to create a smaller radius would snap the sheet.
Note that the minimum radius of the bend you create is 180 times the thickness of the plexiglass sheet.
Have the other person apply slight pressure as you slowly bend the sheet.
Have another person hold the sheet on either side of the desired bend.
Use a plastic cutting knife to cut the sheet down to the general overall size.
The difficulty with small projects having tight bends close together is control of the heat source so the adjoining curve isn t affected.
The sheet will eventually soften along the bend line.
To create bends for small scale projects in plexiglass perspex or acrylic 1 8 inch and thinner you can use a small torch butane kitchen torches work well a paint stripping heat gun or an embossing heat tool which is a wand that works very similarly to a paint stripping gun.
The rest of the sheet is heated largely by conduction.
If you don t have a toaster oven you can carefully use a heat gun to heat the acrylic.
Force the plexiglass into the desired shape.
In both instances you would use a marker or ruler to indicate where you intend to cut it.
Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is opaque to most wavelengths in the infrared spectrum the surface exposed to the heater absorbs almost all the energy.
Wait about 10 minutes for it to warm fully.
Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is an excellent insulator the surface.
Fab glass and mirror also gives you the opportunity to project self made designs on your plastic with a few simple steps.
