At home, cutting plexiglass is rarely required. Usually this work is done by specialists in the workshops. However, this skill can be useful in everyday life. Indeed, sometimes there is a desire to make a vase, an aquarium or a small decorative table with your own hands. So, the subject of our review is plexiglass. How to cut such material?
Material features
Not everyone knows what plexiglass is. How to cut it at home and what features does it have? First of all, plexiglass has the performance characteristics of durable plastic, and also looks like ordinary glass. This material is transparent. However, unlike glass, it does not break.
Thanks to these properties, plexiglass has become popular. How to cut it in everyday life? In this case, not everything is so simple. The material itself is quite durable. Plexiglass is widely used. Indeed, in some cases, using ordinary glass is dangerous and problematic. The material can be processed by almost all available methods. However, there are some nuances that should be considered when working with plexiglass.
Plexiglas laser cutting
How are plexiglass products made in production? Typically, a laser is used to cut this material. This is the most convenient method. However, it is simply impossible to apply it at home. Thanks to the thin laser, a precise cut can be made. In this way, even small details of future products are usually cut out. However, this cutting method has certain limitations: the laser beam creates a high stress on the material. In the future, it is simply impossible to glue the individual parts together.
Plexiglas can only be cut in an industrial environment. If necessary, you should seek assistance from the appropriate organization. The main thing is to make all the drawings in advance. It is also worth picking up an experienced master.
Plexiglass: what to cut?
In some cases, the use of a saw is allowed. It can be tape or disk. The last type of saw is designed for straight cutting. In this case, the seam turns out to be neat and clear. As for it, it is suitable for making blanks. Cutting clear edges with such a tool is unlikely to work. To make the surface smoother, it is recommended to use a cutter.
It should be noted that this method of cutting plexiglass can be used not only in production, but also at home.
Special equipment
Plexiglass products are cut with a high-speed tool. This allows you to get an even and high-quality seam. The speed of such equipment can be up to 4 thousand revolutions per minute. After that, the plexiglass undergoes additional mechanical processing.
However, do not forget that this material has low thermal conductivity. Cutting at high speed can quickly heat up the edges. Some instruments have a Plexiglas mode.
A hacksaw for metal will help out
If you need to cut plexiglass at home, you can use this is the most affordable tool. However, this method has a serious drawback: the cut site remains rough and rough. To eliminate such a defect, additional processing is required. To smooth the cut site, sandpaper or a file is usually used.
We cut plexiglass with a cutter
The methods for cutting plexiglass at home can be very different. Someone uses a hacksaw for metal, and someone uses a cutter. Basically, this tool is a saw with just one tooth. To cut the plexiglass, you need a metal ruler of a certain length. This tool must be placed on the sheet of material where you want to split it. After that, you need to hold the cutter along the ruler.
When the cut reaches ½ of the sheet thickness, you can stop and then gently break the material. If defects have appeared, they can be smoothed out. To do this, sandpaper the edge of the plexiglass. If desired, the cutter can be made independently from an emery cloth. Some experienced craftsmen use pieces of glass to cut plexiglass. This method requires reliable hand protection.
Using simple tools
If cutting plexiglass with a laser is an expensive pleasure for you, then you can cut the material with scrap materials. Very often, a nichrome thread is used for such work. Before starting cutting, it must be heated. This will require a transformer with a power of 24 watts.
As a result of simple manipulations, you can carefully cut the plexiglass. When heated, it simply melts the material. This allows you not only to cut plexiglass, but also to cut curly details.
Also, some craftsmen use this option is suitable for cutting plexiglass at home. A screwdriver is usually pressed against the material with an end. In this case, the tool must be held by the very edge of the handle. After that, the blade of the screwdriver is heated with a soldering iron, the power of which is 25 W.
The plexiglass should start melting. The tip of a screwdriver simply draws a line where the cut should be. After that, the plexiglass breaks easily. To get a straight line, you can use a metal ruler or a hacksaw blade without teeth.
In addition to the above methods, plexiglass can be cut with a cutter or circular saw. The blade thickness in this case should be no more than 1 mm. It is worth considering that smoke may appear during the cutting process. In this case, the edges of the material often foam due to the increase in temperature as a result of friction. This can be avoided. It is necessary to cool the working surface of the tool.
Plexiglass crafts are becoming more and more popular. This beautiful and pliable material is suitable for making figurines, photo frames and other interesting and beautiful things. In this article, we'll show you how to make a price tag holder and a phone stand out of plexiglass.
Advantages and disadvantages
Plexiglass has become a popular craft material for its following qualities:
- ease;
- durability;
- resistance to ultraviolet radiation;
- impact resistance;
- flexible to many types of processing and decoration.
The disadvantages of this material include flammability and poor scratch resistance.
Video "Making a ring from plexiglass"
From this video you will learn how to make a ring out of plexiglass with your own hands.
Classification
There are several types of plexiglass.
- Transparent. Colorless smooth sheets that transmit up to 95% of light. Suitable for etching and engraving. A frame or carved figurine made of such material looks great with an LED garland fixed around the perimeter.
- Colored. The material has a uniform color, transmits 20–75% of light, depending on the thickness of the sheet and the saturation of the shade. Such plexiglass can be relatively transparent or opaque, gently scattering light. It makes spectacular stained-glass windows and lamps. Sheets that let in a minimum of light are especially good for bedside lamps.
- Corrugated. There is a convex pattern on one side of the sheet. Such plexiglass can be either transparent or colored. It is rarely used for crafts.
General instructions
Now let's look at how to make simple but very useful things out of plexiglass: a holder for a price tag and a phone stand.
Instrument preparation
To work with plexiglass, you need the following tools:
- ruler;
- knife, circular saw or jigsaw;
- weight;
- inclined emphasis;
- thermal cutter.
You can make the cutter yourself. For this you will need:
- nitrochrome wire 0.5–1 mm thick and 30–50 cm long;
- frame;
- 12V power supply.
Thanks to the special plexiglass knife, you can easily cut the desired parts from this material The wire is fixed to the frame and connected to a power source. This device is needed to bend the plexiglass.
Draw the exact diagrams of the workpieces in advance: an error of 1 cm can make the item unusable. Both structures have vertically positioned parts, so the base must be secure so that they do not fall.
Making a holder for price tags
There are several types of label holders. For example, consider making a desktop. It has the following shape: an inclined vertical part with a tight clip at the top leaves the base, thanks to which the price sheet does not fall out. For such a product, you will need a transparent sheet 1.5–3 mm thick.
The work is carried out as follows:
Create a phone stand
As an example, consider creating a stand with a base, vertical part, bottom stop and side holders. All of these pieces can be rectangular or artistic.
The plexiglass phone stand is quite easy to manufacture For example, you can make a man-shaped stand with hand-shaped holders.
The stand is made as follows:
Having learned how to work with plexiglass, you can even start your own business, creating either standard inexpensive things in large quantities, or unique products that, among other things, have artistic value.
Often the desire to make their home even more attractive and interesting prompts the owners to use very rare and intricate materials in their work. Previously, vinyl records and metal alloys, matchboxes and burnt wood, textiles and leatherette, and also much more were used for decoration: an experienced craftsman will find use for everything. Today, polymer plexiglass has gained wide popularity, which can be used both for decorative purposes and as a material for creating intricate household appliances. Thanks to creativity, skillful hands and a certain knowledge of organic glass, you can create truly unique objects that will later become your pride and home decoration.
A little about the material
The named material is a polymer alloy with high strength and at the same time maximum ductility (provided that high temperatures are used). Plexiglas contains amorphous polymers, which mainly consist of unfolded and linear macromolecules. This composition of the material allows you to achieve its absolute transparency, strength and lightness.
New material that significantly expanded the capabilities of builders and designers
The advantages of plexiglass used as a material for creating decorative interior elements are:
Therefore, organic glass is becoming more and more in demand among handymen.
It should be noted that completely different intricate gizmos can be created from plexiglass. These can be pretty shelves and fancy shelves, small aquariums or pots for indoor plants, semicircular partitions in a room, or simple countertops. Moreover, in some cases, it may be necessary to bend the plexiglass at a given angle.
You can carry out this task at home, observing the basic rules for working with plexiglass.
Several principles of working with plexiglass
Before you start melting and bending plexiglass, you need to learn a few principles that will help you get the job done as efficiently as possible and without unnecessary waste of material.
- So, to form a part of the desired size, it is necessary to cut off a piece of material of the desired parameters from the whole plexiglass sheet. This will allow you to get an economical consumption of material at the output and a higher productivity of the work performed.
- For work it is necessary to use only pure plexiglass. For this purpose, it is recommended to wash the material.
It is important not to use abrasive materials to clean the plexiglass. Only a soft cloth and natural drying of the polymer cloth. Otherwise, noticeable and unsightly scratches and stains will form on the plexiglass, which spoil the appearance of the material and reduce its transparency.
- After washing the plexiglass, do not immediately start bending work. Let the material dry. This will take at least a day in a dry room at room temperature. Or, dry it with a hair dryer at 80 degrees Celsius.
The principle of calculating the drying time of plexiglass with a hair dryer should be as follows: 1 hour per 1 mm of material thickness in each area.
- When starting to heat the plexiglass in order to deform it at the desired angle, please note that the heat treatment of the material must be carried out from the opposite side relative to the bending angle. That is, we warm the top of the material and bend it down.
- To bend the plexiglass, it is enough to use a heating temperature of 150 degrees, and to melt the material and pour it into the prepared forms, a temperature of at least 170 degrees is needed.
Important: for proper bending of plexiglass at home, you need to warm up an area of \u200b\u200bthe material three times its thickness. That is, if your plexiglass has a thickness of 3 mm, then for its even and beautiful bending, you need to warm up such an area along the line of the supposed bend, the width of which will be 9 mm. With this thickness of plexiglass, it will be enough to treat with a heat device on one side of the material. If the thickness of the plexiglass exceeds 5 mm, then it will be necessary to carry out the process of heating it from both sides along the line of the supposed fold.
- After bending the plexiglass, it is important to let it cool naturally. Do not use water or cold air as a coolant. This can damage the finished product in the form of cracks, bubbles, etc.
Home bending techniques
Necessary materials
In order to give the orsglass the desired configuration, you can use one of several popular methods:
- Heating the material with a building hair dryer;
- By boiling;
- With the help of nichrome wire.
Depending on how the plexiglass is folded, you will need a heating element (a hair dryer, nichrome wire, or a saucepan with boiling water). In addition, prepare:
- Hacksaw for metal;
- Vise for secure fixation of the plexiglass plate;
- Thomas for bending (pipe, bar, tabletop, etc.);
- Abrasive material for grinding the edges of the product;
- Some water (to cool the material while cutting).
Preparatory work
If your future product requires the use of a small piece of plexiglass, then you must first cut it off from the common canvas. To do this, securely fix the plexiglass in a vice and cut the desired piece with a hacksaw for metal. Do not forget to lay soft material in the places of fixation, which will prevent damage to the plexiglass.
For cutting plexiglass, you can use both a hand hacksaw and a jigsaw
Important: use only a sharp hacksaw. Otherwise, the material can be damaged and deformed. When cutting acrylic glass, cool the cutting line with water. This will avoid overheating of the plexiglass and its possible melting.
If the material cracks during cutting, don't worry. It can be removed with a little trick: treat the edges of the split with chilled acetic acid. Allow the acetic acid to penetrate deeper into the pores of the material by shearing the plexiglass at the split. Then squeeze the plexiglass at the crack. The material will fuse and the polished crack will not be visible.
Boil flexion
This is the easiest way to bend plexiglass, requiring virtually no additional tools.
Remember to use protective gloves to avoid burns.
5. Leave the part formed from plexiglass until it cools completely.
Using a construction hair dryer
If you have to bend a large enough piece of plexiglass, then use a building hair dryer for this purpose. Its power will allow processing a large area of \u200b\u200borganic polymer material in an extremely short time.
Using nichrome wire
With the help of a nichrome wire carefully stretched under the plexiglass, bending of the material in a straight line can be achieved without effort. To do this, follow these steps:
Video: bending plexiglass with nichrome wire
We bring to your attention a short video that will clearly demonstrate how to bend plexiglass using nichrome wire.
Plexiglas has recently found wide application in various branches of life. Partitions in offices, advertising products, aquariums and other decorative items are made from it. It is easy to work with this material at home. You can buy it in any trade department of building materials.
Good lighting in the home plays an important role in any design decision. An original decoration of your apartment can be a lamp made of plexiglass with your own hands. A little imagination, perseverance - and your room will sparkle with new colors.
How to make an original lamp yourself?
If you have decided on the idea of \u200b\u200bmanufacturing, then it's time to get to work. The product requires a container made of organic glass. You will need tools: circular saw, scissors, pencil. Stock up on copy paper, stencil, paint. You also need a socket and a wire with a switch.
Expert opinion
Ivan Zaitsev
Lighting specialist, consultant in the building materials department of a large chain of stores
Ask an expertYou can buy a stencil, or you can make it yourself. There are a lot of different options on the network, you should choose the one you like and print. You need to copy the stencil onto vinyl paper using carbon paper. Cut the stencil according to the applied pattern, remove the protective film and glue it to the plexiglass. Bonding requires care, the surface must be clean and dry.
The next stage in the work is painting the plexiglass. It is better to apply paint from a spray: layer by layer. The number of layers is determined visually, depending on the quality of the application. It is better to choose the paint to match the home interior.
The paint should dry well, a day is enough. Remove the stencil carefully, without scratching the painted surface. It is possible to use plexiglass as a material for the lamp, which can be both transparent and of various colors. Then painting at home is not required.
It remains to connect the socket and the wire with the switch, check how the lamp works.
A table lamp or floor lamp, in addition to decorating with a stencil, can also be decorated with photographs. Beautiful landscapes, city streets will create a unique look of the product. And children's photos, family vacations and celebrations will remind of happy moments. Such a plexiglass lamp will not leave anyone indifferent. And how nice it is to receive it as a gift! Photos of friends, parents, grandchildren with grandparents - whatever you want!
Little tricks in making
- Favorite photos must be printed on a printer using special paper. The paper should not be very thick, as it should transmit enough light.
- Cut out the resulting images and fix them on a transparent film.
- Attach a cut-out sheet of organic glass to the lamp frame, fix a film with a photo on it, then put another plexiglass on top.
- Fasten all elements with screws, cut off the protruding edges of the film.
In addition to floor and table lamps, you can also make a ceiling chandelier with your own hands. In addition, you just need to provide special fasteners. For decoration, a decorative thread is suitable, preferably linen. Choose the appropriate color to match the luminaire or interior. It will look original in weaving.
Plexiglas for lighting fixtures can be purchased at building materials stores. It is convenient to handle it at home. The material is easily cut with a circular saw. It is better to cut at medium speed, so as not to melt from overheating. You can drill it with ordinary drills. It is recommended to put plywood under the glass when drilling to prevent cracking.
In the absence of the necessary tools at home, you can cut in the store into the necessary parts in shape and size.
The DIY light source is ready. It remains to admire the results of the work. The original decor product will not leave anyone indifferent.