Bend Radius Acrylic Sheet

Ideal for perspex acrylic plexiglass polycarbonate.

Bend radius acrylic sheet. Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is an excellent insulator the surface. The freight on a 1 2 x 48 x 96 sheet of clear acrylic is 0 0. The freight for 1 2 x 48 x 96 sheet of gray acrylic is 90 00 sometimes there is a 65 00 pallet charge. Preparing hot air gun w.

Set up plastic or acrylic sheet in a simple bending jig. In the image above the values are all in inches but the principle often holds even if the units are in mm. Once you go past a 48 x 96 sheet costs can skyrocket. Screw the boards together through the second board straight into the base board placing a screw every 6 inches.

To calculate the minimum bend radius of curvature multiply the thickness of the sheet to be used by 330. Line bending or thermoforming a brasion resistant acrylic sheet is not recommended. Bending shaping plastic with hot air gun heat gun. Minimum cold forming radius sheet thickness x 100.

Ensure good ventilation because heated acrylic creates mildly toxic fumes. Never heat acrylic sheet in a kitchen oven. Mark your plexiglas sheet along the line where you want to bend it. The rest of the sheet is heated largely by conduction.

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. Since plexiglas acrylic sheet is opaque to most wavelengths in the infrared spectrum the surface exposed to the heater absorbs almost all the energy. Cold forming is possible. Before you bend acrylic set it between 2 pieces of scrap wood and clamp them together with a vice.

Use long thin 1 inch or so in width test strips to practice your technique and learn how your particular heat source affects your chosen thickness of plastic. Tutorial for how to. To set up your plastic or acrylic sheet to bend simple curves for your miniature and model projects you need to first remove the protective covering from the material you wish to bend. This is the completed form you will use to bend your acrylic sheet.

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. This radius is applied in all cold bending procedures. Please keep in mind the bigger and thicker the part is the more it cost to bend. Then aim a heat gun at the point on the acrylic you want to bend.