Best Way To Bend Acrylic Sheets

It is the process of heating the sheet to a specific temperature and then letting it cool down slowly at a predetermined rate.

Best way to bend acrylic sheets.

This alters its properties such as hardness making it more flexible. How to cut acrylic sheet by hand. How to prepare acrylic sheet for work how to cut acrylic. Degrade the sheet if the heating cycle is exceeded.

Make your pressure on the acrylic as even as possible while you push. 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 but using a smaller more directed heat flow with a smaller fan. It is limited to two dimensional forming but is viable for bending sheet thicknesses of up to about two inches. Prepare your heat gun for bending the acrylic.

Strip heat bending utilizes infrared elements and may degrade the sheet if heating cycles are exceeded. A typical forced circulation air oven is shown in figure 1. Scoring is the best way to cut the acrylic in straight lines and then snap it like you do with glass. Bending acrylic is best done with a strip heater or line bender but you can use an ordinary oven set at 120 160c use a jig or former to get the angle correct.

One way of reducing stress induced cracking on the bend line is by the process of annealing. 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. The acrylic sheet is laid over a long thin filament with the bending line just above the wire. Over bend the sheet slightly to prevent memory and then let the sheet relax back into the form.

Professionals who bend acrylate regularly or bend acrylic sheet do so with the aid of a filament. Never use water to cool the acrylic as this will make the acrylic brittle. Place the bend line into the wooden form as it approaches your desired angle. If the material is at 160 degrees celsius it can be bent.

If you don t have a toaster oven you can carefully use a heat gun to heat the acrylic. How to cut acrylic sheet by hand with only hand tools. Heating is a slow process in order to make sure that you get a straight bend in the acrylic.