The products made with plexiglass are beautiful, beautiful, and crystal clear, which is very popular. Many teaching aids, toys, decorations, and billboards are now made of plexiglass. Many teachers and netizens want to make some works with plexiglass, but they don't know how to process them. There is also little information on this aspect. In order to promote the development of such production activities, this article will introduce some methods of plexiglass processing. for reference only.

    First, the type of plexiglass material Transparent plexiglass round tube

    Plexiglass is divided into three types: sheet, pipe and bar. In terms of color, in addition to colorless and transparent, there are many colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, and gray.

    1. Plate: It is a flat material with a thickness of 2 mm to 10 mm. The specification of the whole plate is generally 1200×1800 mm, which can be selected according to needs.

    2. Pipe: According to the shape of the cross section of the pipe, it is divided into a round pipe, a square pipe and a plum pipe. The inner diameter of the tube is from 5 mm to 100 mm, and the wall thickness is from 1 mm to 4 mm. Square tubes and plum tubes also come in a variety of different sizes. Their length is usually about one meter.

    3. Bar: The diameter of the round bar is from 10 mm to 50 mm, and the length is also about one meter.

    Second, the characteristics of plexiglass

    Plexiglass is a high molecular polymer, which is made up of polymethyl methacrylate. The British name is “acrylic”. The code name is PMA. The density is 1.19-1.20 g/cm3, the hardness is equivalent to aluminum, there is no fixed melting point, softening starts at 90 degrees Celsius, and is molten at 104 degrees Celsius. The transparency is as high as 92%, and the ultraviolet light transmitted is as high as 73%. Compared with ordinary glass, the mechanical strength and toughness are more than 10 times that of ordinary glass, the weight is only 1/2, and the chipping resistance is 12-18 times. Outstanding weather resistance, aging resistance, soluble in chloroform (chloroform), with oily markers on the line drawn on it is not easy to fall off.

    Third, the processing technology of plexiglass

    Plexiglass processing technology

    1. Folding: This is a straight line cutting method for plexiglass. The method is to place the ruler on the plate to be cut, the edge of the ruler coincides with the cutting line, and the ruler is fixed. Use a hook knife (a tool specially designed for scribing, available at the tool shop) to draw along the edge of the ruler, and a thin groove will be drawn at the place where the plate is to be cut. When the depth of the groove is about half the thickness, it can be folded. . When folding, the plate should be moved so that the narrow groove drawn by the hook coincides with the edge of the table. One hand presses the plate on the table, the other hand holds the plate outside the table, and the palm is pressed down quickly. The plexiglass will be broken neatly from the position of the hook.

    2. Saw: cutting material or forming with a saw, the cutting path can be straight and flexible. There are special vibrating saws, micro saws (which won't hurt your hands), and hacksaws and wire saws. When processing plexiglass with a saw, the sawdust should be dropped, because the sawdust will melt on the frictional saw blade and stick to the serration, so that the sawtooth will not work. Pull it slower, avoid the saw blade from overheating and stick to the sawdust or use a brush. Sweep the sawdust. Since the edge of the sawed material is rough, it must be smoothed with enamel and sandpaper. Cut off the common data of pipes and bars.

    3, 锉: 锉 is using a sickle. There are three situations that require 锉: (1) the edge of the sawed material, and (2) the rough embryo is slightly larger but not easy to saw, and the trowel is used to match the required size. (3) Remove the sharp edges and corners to make it smooth and feel good.

    4, hot cutting: If the cutting route is complicated to bend, there is no special vibration saw, you can use the hot cutting saw (described on this website) to cut, but pay attention to the edge of the plexiglass cut with hot cutting saw thickened and uneven, so Hot-cutting can only be a rough embryo, which should be hot-cut outside the finished standard line, leaving room for fine machining, otherwise it will be smaller than the required size after fine machining.

    5. Hot Bend: If you want to bend the sheet to an angle. For example, to bend into a right angle. The hot bender (described on this website) must be used to place the material to be folded on the hot bender and then bent on the edge of the table. The angle is fixed after cooling.

    6. Cutting: Plexiglass can also be cut with a lathe like metal such as copper or aluminum. For example, it is required to accurately cut a section of plexiglass or plexiglass tube, and the turning of the lathe can ensure that the cross section is perpendicular to the axis and the size is accurate. For example, a lathe is processed into a small pulley, a conical shape, a truncated cone shape, and the like, and a lathe is used. It must be noted that the cut debris should be brushed at any time during the process so that they do not rub against the tool between the tool and the material, affecting the speed and quality of the processing.

    7. Drilling: Drilling holes in plexiglass is more difficult than drilling holes in metal and wood materials. Mainly in the following two aspects: (1) The heat generated by the friction between the drill bit and the plexiglass causes the drill cuttings to melt and stick to the drill bit, wrapping the drill bit, and not drilling a good hole. (2) When the hole is to be drilled, the drill bit will rotate the material together, especially when drilling a hole on a plate with a drill bit of 4 mm or more in diameter. If you are not careful, you will hurt your hand. To do this, you should pay attention to the following points: 1 It is best to wear gloves on your left hand to prevent the material from turning and hurting your hand. 2 First drill a small hole with a small drill bit, such as a 2-3 mm diameter drill bit, to ensure the position of the hole is accurate. 3 Use intermittent drilling to operate the drill pipe to drill the drill bit and immediately raise the drill bit to cool down. This will prevent the drill bit from overheating and melting the drill cuttings. 4 Remove the cuttings with a brush. When the 5 holes are to be drilled, the depth of each drilling is small to prevent the bit from rotating the material together. 6 Choose a drill of the right size. Sometimes the metal rod is driven into the hole of the plexiglass and is required to be stable. The diameter of the hole should be 0.1-0.2 mm smaller than the diameter of the metal rod. If the metal rod is to be flexibly rotated in the hole, the diameter of the hole should be 0.1-0.2 mm larger than the diameter of the metal rod.

    8, tapping: tapping is to open the thread on the material. Sometimes when we want to screw a screw into a plexiglass, we must first drill a hole on the plexiglass that is slightly smaller than the screw (small 1/10 to 2/10, the larger the mast, the less the hole). The tap (the tool for opening the fangs, the tool store is available) is screwed into the hole, and the hole is threaded. For example, to make a hole that is screwed into a 5 cm diameter rod, first drill a hole with a diameter of 4 cm, fix the tap of the M5 on the tap holder, screw the tap into the hole, and tap the thread. It is.

    9. Bonding: Since the plexiglass is soluble in chloroform, the mutual bonding between the plexiglass does not require another binder. Just use a small syringe (usually 5ml) to absorb a small amount of chloroform liquid, and evenly distribute it. The chloroform is extruded onto the surface of the plexiglass to be bonded, and the bond is immediately pressed. After the liquid is volatilized, the plexiglass is adhered. Here, we should pay attention to the appropriate amount of chloroform. If it is too small, the bonding area is too small and not strong. If it is too much, it will flow to other surfaces, leaving marks, affecting the appearance, and deforming the material bubbles. Quality, and if you want to increase the area of the joint, you can sprinkle some plexiglass powder (the powder collected in the enamel glass) and then add chloroform. In addition, chloroform is a toxic chemical that cannot be manipulated on the hands to avoid immersion from the wound into the body.