Cold Forming Acrylic Sheet

To bend sheet plastic and acrylic you will need.

Cold forming acrylic sheet.

Never heat acrylic sheet in a kitchen oven. Twenty four hours at 176 f 80 c dries most sheets. Modify the timing as necessary. Cold forming is possible.

Cold forming plexiglas sheet can be cold formed bent at room temperature in a smooth arc and held to a radius by forcing the material into a curved channel support. This device can reduce appreciably the labor required for clamping and unclamping sheets preparatory to forming. For thicker sheets it will take longer and for thinner sheets it will take less time. Heat source small projects with bends that are close together will need upon heat source which can be easily aimed at small areas.

Tighter radii may result in crazing or cracking of the coating. I can t recommend for. It is important to provide sufficient clamping of the sheet during the forming process. Release mechanism for hanging plexiglas acrylic sheets in heating ovens.

Acrylic oven baking sheet aluminum foil timer felt for handling the acrylic and to prevent scratches tools for forming tools for forming may include. The recommended radius of curvature should be a value greater than 180 times the thickness of the sheet for plexiglas g sheet and 300 times the thickness for plexiglas mc sheet see table below. Hln supplies leeds plastic fabrication moulding specialists. Line bending or thermoforming a brasion resistant acrylic sheet is not recommended.

The two best tools for this are a small butane torch the type used in the kitchen work well or you can also use an embossing heat tool used by card makers and. This article uses a sheet about 1 4 thick so all times are about 10 to 15 minutes per step. To calculate the minimum bend radius of curvature multiply the thickness of the sheet to be used by 330. To reduce the length of the forming cycle pre dry the sheet in a spare oven and transfer it directly into the forming oven at 176 f 80 c after the drying period.

The only major variable that can affect the forming process is the thickness of the plastic sheet. It can also shorten the time required to transport the heated sheet from the oven to the forming equipment thus minimizing the possibility of cold forming. A mold any object shape you can press the acrylic into to give it shape mallet and or a peen for shaping caution i ve only tried this in an electric oven.