I spent a couple of hours today making a bending/folding machine so I can make bends in the aeroscreen. This is made up a of a few sections on angle iron, a handful of bolts and a couple of hinges. The whole lot cost me all of £2.69 for the hinges, the bolts I had lying around in the garage and the angle sections were originally holding up my old fence!
First test piece below, an off cut of 4mm acrylic bent cold. I'm pleased with the quality of the bend and how easy it was to achieve. There are some surface scuff marks which were transferred off the faces of the angle iron so these have been rubbed smooth with some grit paper and given the whole lot a coat of paint.
First test piece below, an off cut of 4mm acrylic bent cold. I'm pleased with the quality of the bend and how easy it was to achieve. There are some surface scuff marks which were transferred off the faces of the angle iron so these have been rubbed smooth with some grit paper and given the whole lot a coat of paint.
Next I tried an off cut of 6mm thick polycarbonate (the same thickness as I bought for the aeroscreen). This started to tear at each end of the fold so I either need to go for a smaller bend angle or apply some heat to help, although I've read that this can cause the heated area to become cloudy due to moisture. More testing required...
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