How To Shape Plexiglass Sheets

Fab glass and mirror also gives you the opportunity to project self made designs on your plastic with a few simple steps.

How to shape plexiglass sheets.

In both instances you would use a marker or ruler to indicate where you intend to cut it. 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. Force the plexiglass into the desired shape. Place the plastic sheet on a cookie sheet and place in an oven set to 250 f.

Note that the minimum radius of the bend you create is 180 times the thickness of the plexiglass sheet. Plexiglass can be cut by hand using a scoring knife or a dremel tool. Then place the sheet on a table with the marked side facing up. If you don t have a toaster oven you can carefully use a heat gun to heat the acrylic.

The rest of the sheet is heated largely by conduction. Use a plastic cutting knife to cut the sheet down to the general overall size. Lay the sheet on a flat surface and. Have another person hold the sheet on either side of the desired bend.

It is also easy to clean plexiglass sheets and maintain them. Most scale models won t need bends in acrylic more than 1 16 inch thick. Acrylic sheet for better energy efficiency. Hold the heating gun approximately 4 inches from the line and direct the heat jet slowly back and forth along your line.

If you have a toaster oven set it to about 200º and leave the door slightly ajar. Have the other person apply slight pressure as you slowly bend the sheet. This should include any interior cutouts corners etc. Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is opaque to most wavelengths in the infrared spectrum the surface exposed to the heater absorbs almost all the energy.

Moreover clear acrylic sheets can easily be cut down to accommodate whichever shape and size you want. Mark the shape with a black felt tip pen. The difficulty with small projects having tight bends close together is control of the heat source so the adjoining curve isn t affected. To cut the material with a scoring knife you should make a small cut in the marked area.

The sheet will eventually soften along the bend line. 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. The size shape and optical requirements of the formed part generally. Wait about 10 minutes for it to warm fully.

Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is an excellent insulator the surface.