Shaping perspex

[motoddrob]

I'm forming 1.5mm perspex at the moment for covers in front of the headlights in the nose of the fairing. Want to keep the same profile of the nose so I used the fibreglass mold I made of the nose after I reshaped it from a square headlight to use 2 X 50mm projector lens lights. I also had the plug I removed from the square H/L void after taking the mold. I heated the plex with a hot air gun and sandwich it between the the two.
Back in my model making days we would have a vacuum former to do it. Bent heaps of perspex over the years for all kinds of applications. Would heat the sheets using several strip heater bars in a overhead box.
The sheet was on a flat drawer that slid to and fro.

 

[chrisk]

Would heat the sheets using several strip heater bars in a overhead box.
The sheet was on a flat drawer that slid to and fro.

Hey Rob, you are alive, haven't seen you here for a while. I used to sell similar machines, but they were used for skinpacking, best example is how you buy lawn mower blades. Card with a clear film vacuumed down over the blades and cut into a hang-sell pack.

The best machine I came across for the appliacation is those that have variable vacuum, that way you can control the pull-down speed. That stops the webbing of the material.


Here's the one I used to sell.