bend organic glass easy and manual without the use of tools. This property of plexiglass is successfully used, which allows for a variety of work. Knowing how to bend plexiglass, you should use one of the existing techniques that allows you to get a good bend of plexiglass.
What should you consider when bending plexiglass?
Plexiglas is a thermoplastic, so it can acquire sufficient plasticity, which depends on high temperatures. During the manufacturing process, plexiglass can be formed at different temperatures, which determines the method of its production.
The complexity of the process of bending plexiglass lies in obtaining a bend at the required angle, which is done in the required place. To bend the plexiglass, you can use a heat source.
The bending process is carried out taking into account the direction from the heat source. If bubbles form when plexiglass is bent, it must be dried before the process itself. When starting to bend, it is important to remember that before bending glass, it is best to practice on a small unnecessary piece of material.
If you use a blowtorch, you can heat it to the required temperature level. When bending plexiglass using a metal pipe, its radius is repeated by the sheet.
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Principles of bending plexiglass
A heat source that allows you to heat the plexiglass so that it bends is best suited for a narrow format. This type The source is made using nichrome wire. A number of small sources can be installed on one line thermal radiation, for example, thin candles for cakes.
This type of source is made by filling a trench using non-flammable material filled with paraffin. You can stick thread into it. In extreme cases, you can use candles.
The second bending method can be used if any part of the plexiglass is covered with a material that has poor thermal conductivity and is non-flammable. IN in this case adjusting the bending angle will be the easiest, which will allow you to change the width of the strip. We should not forget about various cylindrical objects, that is, tubes, used as a template to make the appropriate bend having the desired radius.
When bending has already been completed, the material is gradually cooled, which minimizes internal stress. After this, the voltage is removed by annealing for several hours, maintaining an air temperature of 60-80 °C.
If nichrome wire is heated, it may sag. This will entail an increase in the distance to the plexiglass. The sagging of the wire can be compensated by using a load. When bending the sheet, do not press on this material, otherwise the deformation will be incorrect.
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Guidelines for proper performance of work
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Preparatory stage
To carry out the work efficiently, you will need patience and accuracy. At the same time, you should know how to bend plexiglass correctly in accordance with the technology. You will need special tools and materials. This procedure can be carried out using:
- Metal pipe.
- Nichrome wire.
- Blowtorch.
- Crafting table.
- Adjustable power supply.
Before bending plexiglass with wire, it is necessary to dry the plexiglass thoroughly so that no bubbles form at the bend site.
The list of basic steps includes the following main types of operations that allow you to make a bend:
- Surface cleaning.
- Drying.
- Fixing the sheet with tensioning nichrome wire.
- Heating and bending plexiglass.
- Bending to a specific radius.
They begin to prepare the material before performing bending work. The glass must be thoroughly cleaned of dust and dirt. At heavily polluted the material is immersed in the bath. If there is local contamination on the glass, use a cotton swab or rag that is moistened with water. To dry the glass, use a cotton cloth.
Cleaning is not carried out using abrasives or synthetic materials. If it is contaminated with oil or grease stains, they can be removed with gasoline or kerosene. Aggressive liquids, that is, acetone or solvent, are not recommended, as they can harm the glass.
If the material was in conditions high humidity and the presence of water vapor, then drying must be carried out with particular care, observing the appropriate temperature regime equal to 80 °C. The drying time should be between 1 and 2 hours per mm of thickness.
With a sheet thickness of 3 mm, it may take from 3 to 6 hours. It may take a long time, depending on the temperature level and the amount of moisture absorbed. If drying is not done, bubbles may appear.
When drying is complete, the sheet should be secured to the edge of the workbench by stretching nichrome wire at the future bend.
In order to bend plexiglass to a certain radius, you need to take a pipe required diameter.
It is fixed at a distance from the sheet, which is no more than 0.5 cm. The main important steps include installing the bendable edge of the plexiglass into the stop, which cannot be bent to an angle greater than necessary.
Nichrome wire is used after it is connected to a power source that is regulated. After achieving the required heat on the nichrome wire, you should wait until the sheet begins to bend under the influence of its own weight. When the temperature level reaches 150 - 190°C, the sheet is bent. If there is a need to maintain the bending radius, then use a metal pipe instead of nichrome wire.
Modern organic glass, due to its properties, has gained great popularity in various industries and in everyday life. It is successfully used in the automotive industry, in the production of greenhouse structures, interior doors, advertising structures, individual elements building facades, various designs in the radio-electronic industry. Due to its light transmittance and large color scheme it is made from various lamps industrial and household purposes (flashing lights, running lights).
Main features of working with organic glass
To achieve good results when working with bending organic glass, you should take into account its features. They will allow you to get rid of possible defects and waste of material. Bending plexiglass at home is not a complicated operation.
When choosing a material, it is necessary to clean the workpiece, it is better to rinse it clean water and remove all small particles that are on the surface. This occurs due to education electric charge on a surface. It is necessary to avoid the use of any abrasive materials, even the smallest fractions. This will lead to a significant decrease in the transparency of the future part. After washing, professionals allow the organic glass to dry for 24 hours, preferably at room temperature. If time is limited, you can use a hair dryer. In this case, it is necessary to observe the thermal regime. The temperature of the directed air flow should not exceed 80 °C. For getting good result use an empirical approach that allows drying times to be calculated. According to this approach, you need to spend one hour for every millimeter of glass thickness. Therefore, if the glass is 3 mm thick, it must be dried for at least three hours.
After drying, you can begin work. However, it should be remembered that it is more expedient to heat the required area on the opposite side from the bend surface. If you need to get a given internal corner, warm up outside glass
The heating temperature must be taken into account. Plexiglas like material made from organic compounds, can not only heat up, but melt and even catch fire. Professionals advise maintaining the heating temperature at approximately 150 °C. If, in addition to the task of changing the surface configuration, there is a need to fill a certain shape with organic glass, it must be heated to a temperature of more than 170 ° C.
An important feature is the need to heat an area of organic glass that is three times the thickness of the glass. When bending glass 4 mm thick, a strip 12 mm wide should be heated. For material with a thickness of more than 5 mm, it is necessary to heat it on both sides along the line of the planned bend.
After completion of the work, it is necessary to cool the part without using quick ways cooling (flow cold water or air). Such haste can lead to the formation of internal cracks, bubbles, and deformation. Therefore, to obtain the required bending angle, it is necessary to carefully follow the technological sequence.
Methods for bending organic glass
The most well-known principles for bending plexiglass are:
- By using construction hair dryer.
- Bending in hot water(by boiling method).
- Using special nichrome wire.
- Using a metal pipe.
It is advisable to divide the entire technological process into two stages. The first stage is the so-called preparatory stage, the second is the main stage, the bending process itself.
Preparatory stage
This stage involves preparation the necessary tool and the workpiece itself.
Depending on which method is chosen, the following tools and equipment will be required:
- a vice or several clamps for securing the workpiece;
- manual or mechanical cutting tool(this could be a hacksaw, an electric jigsaw);
- form for bending (usually a metal pipe is used, wooden block, tabletop or other equipment capable of providing the required bending radius);
- abrasive material for smoothing the edges of the structure;
- water container;
- source electric current(can be variable or constant);
- soft liners to prevent mechanical marks from a vice or clamps on the surface of the part.
Any operation of bending organic glass involves heating it. This can be heating the immediate bend or the entire part, if its dimensions are not large. For these purposes, various heat sources are used.
Using a hair dryer
If it is necessary to bend a large piece of organic glass or a fairly long part, a powerful hair dryer is used as a heat source. Its power should be such that it allows sufficient heating large plot details.
The sheet is clamped in a vice, or if this is not possible due to large sizes use several clamps. With their help, it is fixed to the tabletop. Mark the future fold line and gradually carefully warm up the area adjacent to the future fold line with a stream of hot air. After softening this area of plexiglass, bend it to the required angle. The resulting part is cooled naturally for the required time.
Bending in hot water (boiling method)
This method is considered by professionals to be the simplest and least energy-consuming. To implement it, practically no special tool is required.
Its implementation is as follows:
- the prepared container with water is heated so that the water begins to boil (the size of the container is chosen so that it can be used to freely work with the workpiece);
- immerse a plexiglass part in boiled water and keep it there for five minutes (the time depends on the thickness of the part);
- After the workpiece is well heated, it is necessary to remove it and give it the required shape.
The peculiarity of this method is that you have to work with a fully heated workpiece. Therefore, it is necessary to provide methods of protection against high temperatures.
Using special nichrome wire
This method considered the most technologically advanced. To implement it, a special nichrome wire and a constant voltage source are used. The power of the source must ensure heating of this wire to the required temperature.
The process itself is implemented in several stages.
- The workpiece must be thoroughly dried. Without this operation, moisture bubbles may form in the bend areas, which can cause damage. Negative influence on strength at the bending point, will reduce transparency, significantly deteriorate appearance. Drying must be done in accordance with the recommendations given earlier.
- The finished part is fixed on the surface of the workbench. Nichrome wire is pulled over the intended bend line. The height from the surface of organic glass should not exceed five millimeters. It is not advisable to apply preliminary markings to the sheet with a pencil, marker, or other dyes. Heating the bend can cause the dye to diffuse into the surface layer of organic glass. It is almost impossible to remove such a strip.
- The wire is connected to the source direct current. It will be more convenient to work if the source is adjustable. In this case, there is the possibility of a gradual increase in the strength of the electric current passing through the filament, and therefore a gradual increase in the filament temperature. It is necessary to achieve a heating temperature of approximately 150 °C. It is from this temperature that deformation of organic glass occurs.
- Having reached this temperature, the bend line will become plastic and part of the sheet will begin to bend downward under its own weight. All that remains is to give the workpiece the required angle. After completing the process you must give finished part cool down.
Using a metal pipe
This method is used if it is necessary to give the workpiece not just a bend, but a certain radius of curvature, and is also applicable at home. In this case, the workpiece of the required radius is used metal pipe. To carry out the operation, either the pipe itself or the bend is heated using a powerful soldering iron with a wide tip or blowtorch.
Implementation sequence technological process as follows:
- A cold sheet of organic glass is placed on top of a pre-fixed pipe. Mark the starting point of the bend.
- Using a blowtorch or soldering iron, gradually heat the bend area. When the material becomes soft, manually carefully turn the sheet along the pipe, bending until desired angle. Using a soldering iron allows you to heat the bending area to the maximum temperature. This moment is easily determined by the crackling sound of the material.
If another option is used, the pipe is first heated and then a sheet of plexiglass is applied. A bend is made around the heated pipe.
Using any of the listed methods involves working with such hazardous factors as:
- instruments and devices connected to high voltage;
- high temperatures;
- possible appearance of fragments when glass breaks (with insufficient heating).
Therefore, in order to protect yourself during this work, you must follow safety regulations.
Advantages and disadvantages of organic glass
Organic glass has a number of advantages that have contributed to its great popularity. These include:
- has good anti-shock properties;
- relatively light weight (allows you to create complex and rather bulky structures);
- is an excellent dielectric;
- has high throughput over the entire range of the visible spectrum;
- quite resistant to atmospheric factors (high humidity, various types precipitation, low temperatures);
- has good environmental performance (when heated, no harmful chemical elements are released);
- sufficiently high resistance to the effects of mildly aggressive agents;
- good mechanical properties(quite easy to process and deformable);
- has a wide range of colors;
- good operational safety (if damaged, no dangerous fragments are formed).
The main disadvantage of this material is its poor resistance to external influence hard objects (scratches, cuts, cracks quickly form). In addition, the formation of a surface electric charge due to its electrostatic properties can be considered a negative phenomenon.
Organic glass has properties that allow it to be cut, drilled, or bent. When heated, this transparent plastic melts... This provides a lot of scope for creating products. various shapes. You can work with it manually without using tools. Most home craftsmen use these qualities of plexiglass for a variety of purposes.
How to bend plexiglass with your own hands
Clean the sheet of dirt before you start bending the plexiglass with your own hands. If it is too dirty, wash off all traces under running water. clean water in the bathroom. If it is not very dirty, you need to wipe it using a damp cotton swab or soft cotton rag. Do not use abrasive cleaning agents or synthetic materials. Oil and grease stains should be removed using gasoline or kerosene. Do not use acetone, thinner or other aggressive liquids to clean glass.
Dry the plexiglass after washing it. Otherwise, bubbles may appear on its surface, which will make it difficult to bend the plexiglass. Optimal temperature for drying is 80°C. It takes several hours for the sheet to dry completely.
You need to take small pieces of plexiglass and lower them into boiled water. Then you need to take them out, after putting on silicone gloves and immediately begin the procedure of bending the plexiglass.
You can try bending plexiglass using a gas stove. It is not necessary to heat the entire glass, but only the bend points. You need to place a can of canned food on the gas burner of the stove and turn it upside down. Before doing this, you need to carefully cut a hole in the jar. The optimal heating temperature is 150°C.
You can bend glass to make small parts using an ordinary soldering iron. Before bending plexiglass using this method, you must remove old solder from the tip. You need to apply a heated tip from a soldering iron to the bend and heat the material until it melts, at which point a peculiar cracking sound appears. Put the soldering iron aside and start bending the glass at the angle you want directly with your hands. You can install plexiglass on a wooden template right angle to fix it in this position. And only when it has completely hardened, separate the finished part.
Prepare the glass of the size you need and wipe it with a soda solution. Then roll a large sheet of plexiglass into a tube or use a metal pipe of a certain diameter and length to give it a rounded shape. Next, you need to fix it on a stand and, using a blowtorch, heat the pipe inside to 100 ° C. When it cools down, the glass will take the form that you gave it.
Plexiglas is a solid synthetic transparent material that is made from organic polymers. Organic glass is used to construct aquariums and shelves, as well as glazing greenhouses, doors and decorative finishing. Since this material is a thermoplastic, it becomes plastic when exposed to high temperatures. It is thanks to this property that plexiglass is flexible.
The process of bending organic glass: 1 - heating, 2 - bending at right angles, 3 - bending into a tube.
Basic methods of bending plexiglass
To bend plexiglass at home, it must be heated to a certain temperature (145-165°C), which will allow bending with minimal load on the material. 100°C is enough for bending, but in this case more effort will be needed. It should be remembered that it is not the entire material that needs to be heated, but only the intended bend location.
Do-it-yourself bending of plexiglass is carried out in the following ways:
- Boiling. The material is immersed in boiling water for some time, where it is heated. After this, the heated glass is removed from the boiling water and bent. This method is not suitable if you need to do it at an even angle.
- Using a hair dryer. For this you will need: a hair dryer, a large ruler and a pencil. First, a bend line is drawn on the glass, which is heated with a hair dryer. After heating, the material is bent. If the fold line is long, then this method is not recommended, because while you heat in one place, the plexiglass in another will have time to cool.
- Use of nichrome wire. The simplest device for bending organic glass at home is a string. When heated, nichrome wire heats the material. One end of the string is fixed rigidly, and the other is thrown over a roller, and a weight is attached to it for tension. After this, voltage is applied to the wire from a regulated power source, causing it to heat up. It should be noted that about 1000 W of power should be supplied per 120 cm of wire. The level of heating will depend on the plexiglass manufacturing technology. After desired temperature achieved, the material softens and will easily bend at the required angle.
Figure 1. An electromechanically driven heat bending machine is used to bend organic glass.
To bend organic glass, you can use a special thermobending machine (Fig. 1). Such equipment allows you to work with material with a thickness of 0.3-200 mm with an unlimited width. On the market today construction equipment you can find machines with manual, foot, pneumatic and electromechanical drives, which work on the same principle: first the glass is heated, after which it is pressed required form, and then cools.
The machine can be equipped with several heating elements, which can be installed at different distances from each other. Depending on the thickness of the sheet, single-sided or double-sided heat bending equipment can be used.
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Large size organic glass bending
The methods of giving organic glass the required shape, which are described above, make it possible to process sheets small sizes. But sometimes it becomes necessary to bend the houses enough large leaf glass There is a method for this called radius bending. To implement this, an unpainted and non-rusty metal pipe is used, the diameter of which must be equal to the required bending radius.
The pipe is equipped with clamps to hold the sheet being processed and is fixed on the stand. After this, using a blowtorch, the pipe is heated to 95-100°C. At the same time, the glass around it is bent.
Before you start bending the plexiglass, it needs to be treated with a soda solution.
Modern technologies offer us new Construction Materials, successfully replacing those “natural” products that did not always satisfy us with their parameters - cost or physical indicators (weight, structure), additional difficulties in processing, etc. Such materials include ordinary glass, which today is being successfully replaced by organic glass.
Properties and scope of application of organic glass
This one is solid synthetic material retained the transparency of ordinary silicate glass, but acquired many new advantages, which makes it possible to use it in the automotive industry, for the manufacture glass doors, aquariums, greenhouse structures, roofs, many decorative details such as design panels, advertising stands, for molding computer cases. Plexiglas distributes light evenly, so it is used to make all kinds of bright dynamic lighting installations with flashing lights and running lights, which look especially attractive at night.
The material does not have such increased fragility as ordinary glass (and therefore is not so dangerous), it is not so heavy in weight, and is easy to deform and cut. How a thermoplastic becomes plastic under the influence of high temperatures. In this “secret” lies the answer to how to bend it.
By adhering to certain rules, you can transform the shape of this material without much difficulty. To do this, you will need special tools: a workbench, a metal pipe, nichrome wire, a blowtorch and a power source with its adjustment.
The advantages of plexiglass include:
- impact resistance (5 times higher than silicate glass);
- electrical insulating properties;
- resistance to moisture and other external factors environment, frost resistance;
- high light transmittance (up to 92%);
- environmental friendliness (absence of toxic gases during combustion and heating);
- unaffected by UV rays (transmittance 73%);
- resistance to chemical agents;
- flexibility when creating a variety of shapes.
The disadvantages include its main property - the ease of deformation by sharp objects, which requires careful handling of the products.
Sheets of organic glass are sold with a film applied to them, which partially protects its blanks from damage. However, the film is not able to protect the sheet from scratches or even cracks when cutting it with a hacksaw or jigsaw. In addition, these tools create a large amount of sawdust. There are more functional ways to cut and process sheets of this material.
How to bend under heat
Plexiglas requires careful and timely exposure to it at the moment of softening under the influence of heat. This polymer of synthetic origin allows you to perform many mechanical operations with it to create both flat and three-dimensional objects.
Bending is not the most difficult activity, but it requires some experience and compliance with certain rules, which we will pay special attention to.
Bending with wire
- Before processing, the sheet of material must be subjected to mandatory drying, otherwise moisture bubbles will form at the place where it is bent, which not only spoil its appearance, disrupting its transparency, but also change its structure. Drying is carried out at a temperature of 80˚C with a time calculation of 1.5 hours per 1 mm of workpiece thickness.
- We fix the dried sheet on the workbench. We fix the nichrome wire at a distance of up to 0.5 cm from the workpiece, exactly along the line along which the workpiece should be bent. You should not draw a line on the sheet with a marker, since it will be very difficult to remove its traces after heating the workpiece. Let's set the stop to which the sheet should be deformed.
- To heat it, the nichrome wire is connected to an adjustable power source with the required filament temperature. Typically, the material begins to deform at a heating temperature of 150-190˚C.
- After enough time, the sheet will begin to bend under its own weight to the stop you set.
Bending with a metal pipe
To bend the workpiece to a certain degree, either a metal pipe of the required diameter is used, or a workpiece made of plexiglass itself, or carved from wood.
- We place the sheet on top of the pipe, and then heat the sheet with a blowtorch in the line of contact with the pipe until the material begins to give in and takes the shape of the pipe.
- Cooling of the product is carried out smoothly, evenly and continuously to a temperature of 60-70˚C.
- Secure the sheet in a vice on a level table. Lightly scratch the fold line.
- Heat the sheet along the drawn line using a heat gun (or hair dryer soldering station) at a temperature of 150-180˚С and begin to bend the sheet without removing the hair dryer from the heating area. The sheet should be heated gradually, without causing it to melt. If the sheet is more than 5-6 mm thick, it is better to heat it on both sides of the sheet either simultaneously or alternately. The last side to heat up is the side of the sheet that will be on the convex side of the bend. Cold areas of the sheet should be covered with something, leaving only a narrow strip along the heating line. The width of the heated strip should be three times the thickness of the sheet.
- The sheet should be bent in the direction from the heat source, that is, the heat stream should be directed towards the convex part of the bend.
Bending with a hot air gun
You can also bend it after heating it in boiling water, in an oven, using gas burner, or even the fire of candles placed in a row. The heated thin sheet can be easily bent with your hands (with gloves on!), and any indentations can be squeezed out in it.
Using heat treatment, organic glass can be cut, for example, using a heated spiral. It is especially convenient to use a spiral for cutting small products.
Spiral cutting
For cutting plexiglass, a spiral from a heating device, a soldering iron, or an old variable resistor is suitable. The approximate parameters of the spiral are length 7 cm, diameter 0.3 mm, power supply 12 volts, energy consumption 1.5 amperes. At the same time, the spiral becomes red-hot, which is not at all necessary, since the material will melt and emit smoke with a pungent odor. The coil is soldered to metal pins, and the pins are soldered to a cable connected to a regulated voltage power source.
Gluing
Plexiglas can not only be bent and cut, but also glued. To do this, you should not use cyanoacrylate glue with all its advantages of “grabbing tightly”, since in the places of gluing the material loses transparency (turns white), and the glue easily and quickly spreads into different sides. It must be said that gluing parts is not a simple matter, compared to gluing ordinary silicate glass using silicone glue or a hot glue gun.
And yet you should glue with dichloroethane - a poisonous transparent liquid agent that dissolves almost any plastic. Dichloroethane is applied to the cleaned surface of the joints and they are immediately connected to set. Then a mixture of shavings and dichloroethane with the consistency of jelly is prepared, and the seam at the joint is filled with this mixture. Before this procedure, you should practice, and carry out the work with mandatory protection from toxic dichloroethane fumes, followed by disinfection of your hands. warm water with soap.
Organic glass can be bent even when cooled. True, the bending radius should be 230 times greater than the thickness of the sheet being bent.
To learn how to bend material without damaging it, it is worth remembering that good preliminary training never hurts in any work.
