______ acrylic glass bending

need

acrylic glass sheets / plexiglass 4 mm or thicker

heat gun

clamps

two pieces of scrap wood

white board marker (water erasable)

over all be careful to not get your hands near the heat stream of the gun as well as be aware that the tip of the gun is super hot and you can’t lay it on the ground with the tip touching the floor! Always put it nozzle up!

stay safe

try to get leftover plexiglass glass sheets at the hardware store, usually they are on discount since they're just leftovers from cuttings, but you can get whole sheets there as well

first off make sure to remove any kind of foil etc, cause it will melt into the glass once you start the heat gun

lets say first project is a little stand, like for a laptop or as a display thing

measure how high you want the 'leg part' to be

mark your height from both ends with a removable marker alternatively you can take some tape as well, just make sure that the tape is covered by the wood when you start the heat gun. the market is just to make sure you get the same heigt on both sides and that it’s straight

next put your glass in between two pieces of wood.

try to cover the marker / tape with the wood

doesn't have to be any specific kind, you just need the straight edge to be sore your fold / bend is all the way straight

sandwich your glass in and align your marked line with the edges of the wood

clamp it tightly, but make sure the clamps don't get in the way when you bend up or down

take your heat gun and heat up just a small line right where the glass touches the wood pieces

you need the glass to come up to around 160 degrees C - I put my heat gun on 300 degrees C and did slow lines with the nozzle of the heat gun for a few minutes

be careful to not get the air from the heat gun near your fingers!! its super super hot!!

bend slowly and carefully, you might have to heat it up a bit and bend a little bit more ... try as you go

make sure to hold it in place for a few minutes, to have it cooling off in the right position

look from the side to check If you're close to a 90 degree angle, so you'll end up with a stable stand

the options are endless, you can make super small or super big ones...

just when it comes it really big ones: don't use too thin of a sheet to start with, I would suggest if you want a full size couch/ side table go with 6mm or thicker. to be sure its stable

for these small stands I used 4 mm

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feel like just a single bend each side is boring?

yup thought so too. I took a 170 cm long sheet to make a side table / magazine holder - it was a challenge

so I got this super long piece and measured how long / high I wanted the legs to be. and marked it

anything in between is basically free for bending

I took a cardboard tube and bend the first leg around to get a more rounded edge

next I bent some more to create a deep pocket shape for things like books or magazines

I used tools like a metal 90 degree angle thing to make sure I would end up with a up straight table and not have it leaning super weird to one side

some more tubes and bending ....

and more ....

I did make some lines with the marker to have a visual guide on where to heat the glass

regularly speaking: its easier if you heat up just one line and bend your way through the whole length than trying to heat up a big part of the glass, this can cause some unwanted warping etc ...

for the final cool down I put it in between two things to have the 90 degree corners and legs straight in place

remove the marker once cooled down