Bending lexan for Control Panel overlay

[liche]

I'm planning on putting lexan (or plexiglass) over my overlay on my control panel.  However, my control panel has a 90 degree bend (controls on top and front side).

A lot of people use acrylic and a heatgun to bend the acrylic to the shape of the control panel for a one piece cover, but I hate acrylic since its extremely difficult to machine compared to other types of plastics.

Anyone have luck with bending lexan or plexiglass??  I assume the plastic has to be thermoplastic which i think lexan (polycarbonate is) however the melting temperature is probably much higher than acrylic.

Any thoughts?

[Elkor]

Yeah, you can thermoform it.  Don't know what kind of temp you would need though.  It's probably not as bad as you'd think...

some info:
http://www.mcmaster.com/param/asp/loadaddcontent.asp?ID=100000000904758250020000

-C

[ErikRuud]

PlexiGlass is an acrylic.

Lexan can be tricky stuff to form.  I know people that use it for slot car and R/C car bodies.  Of course you would be using thicker material that they do.  Lexan has a tendancy to absorb moisture.  It's not a lot, but that moisture can cause problems, because the Lexan needs to be heated above the boiling point of water.  Before thermo forming lexan, you need to dry it for a while.  150 degress is a good temp to dry it at.

If I remember correctly, 450 degrees is the temp used to vac-u-form lexan. To do a simple bend, you won't need to go that high.

Experiment with some scraps.

[SNAAAKE]

while we are at it .

Is it possible to bend laminate because I wanted know how.I saw some bent laminate in a restaurent once and looked very cool.
Anyone ?

[ErikRuud]

I'm pretty sure that bending laminate needs some pretty special equipment.  A very gentle curve may be possible, but anything else would be very hard to do.

My wife used to work for a countertop frabicator.  They did not bend laminate.  It was either flat, or formed at the factory.  On the other hand the did some pretty amazing stuff with solid surface materials like Corian and Avonite.

[SNAAAKE]

ehh

Seems a lot of work so I wont even try but thanks for the answer though

[_Iz-]

Liche, I recently read an article on case modding. The author bent lexan by heating it in his oven at 375

[u_rebelscum]

I'm pretty sure that bending laminate needs some pretty special equipment.  A very gentle curve may be possible, but anything else would be very hard to do.

It also depends on what laminate you use.  Some are designed for some bending. WilsonArts, and laminate sold at HomeDepot, has different types of laminate, some designed for bending.  http://www.wilsonart.com/laminate/consumer/product_support/q_a_results.asp?id=34  The stuff at HomeDepot, however, is the non-bendable type.

[_Iz-]

I'm pretty sure that bending laminate needs some pretty special equipment.  A very gentle curve may be possible, but anything else would be very hard to do.

It also depends on what laminate you use.  Some are designed for some bending. WilsonArts, and laminate sold at HomeDepot, has different types of laminate, some designed for bending.  http://www.wilsonart.com/laminate/consumer/product_support/q_a_results.asp?id=34  The stuff at HomeDepot, however, is the non-bendable type.

Postforming grade is bendable. (Really tight curves require special equipment and heat. General purpose is thicker and not recommended for bending.

[liche]

_IZ_

If you can find that link regarding bending LEXAN in the oven, let me know.

Thanks

[_Iz-]

http://www.designmethod.com/bling/

Click on Version.2

It's steps 7 & 8.

Temp is 325