Best Way To Bend Acrylic Sheets

A typical forced circulation air oven is shown in figure 1.

Best way to bend acrylic sheets.

The acrylic sheet is laid over a long thin filament with the bending line just above the wire. 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. Continue to direct the heat jet back and forth along the bend line until the acrylic sheet fits into the form at the correct angle. If you don t have a toaster oven you can carefully use a heat gun to heat the acrylic.

Heating is a slow process in order to make sure that you get a straight bend in the acrylic. Strip heat bending utilizes infrared elements and may degrade the sheet if heating cycles are exceeded. Scoring is the best way to cut the acrylic in straight lines and then snap it like you do with glass. How to prepare acrylic sheet for work how to cut acrylic.

Over bend the sheet slightly to prevent memory and then let the sheet relax back into the form. How to cut acrylic sheet by hand with only hand tools. Prepare your heat gun for bending the acrylic. It is limited to two dimensional forming but is viable for bending sheet thicknesses of up to about two inches.

This alters its properties such as hardness making it more flexible. Place the bend line into the wooden form as it approaches your desired angle. How to cut acrylic sheet by hand. 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. It becomes soft and can then be properly although care must be taken. 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 the process of heating the sheet to a specific temperature and then letting it cool down slowly at a predetermined rate.

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. Make your pressure on the acrylic as even as possible while you push. Use the spare piece of flat scrap wood to push the acrylic back and down while you aim the heat gun at the acrylic.