User:Zkrell1/ENES-100/project 3: Plexiglass 2

Week0 Narrative
The plexiglass project has been continued and I was assigned to this group again.

Past accomplishments
 * checked pricing on plexiglass from differant companies
 * ordered a better heat gun to bend plexiglass
 * started testing light inside of plexiglass
 * practiced cutting plexiglass with a dremel saw
 * designed display shelves for hallway but that is not being done for a while and doesn't push the project forward

Still needs to be done
 * start using the laser cutter to practice making cuts on the plexiglass
 * finish bend table and practice using
 * make a display case with 5 sides and like a box

Week1 Narrative
Goals:
 * to design square like shelve display case for hallway
 * Design 5 side box display case for something made
 * practice bending plexiglass
 * make bend table

Experimentation: Designed box like display shelving but found out this is not pushing the project forward here is my design



Designed a 5 side display case here is my design



practiced bending plexiglass with old and new heat gun after finding out the new one came in

Built bending table when we found out the c channel came in

Next Week:

Still need to figure out power supply for bending table using a dial power resister to change current need to figure out what nicrome wire is rated for

Practice gluing plexiglass

Start using laser cutter

Week2 Narrative
Goals:
 * Find better way to make cuts on plexiglass
 * Practice gluing two pieces of plexiglass
 * Make a box display case
 * Make small scale display case shelving
 * make bends with heat gun
 * make heating table and figure out it's power supply

Experimentation:

1. Bending with the heat gun
 * needed pieces of wood and clamps placed over plexiglass to direct heat
 * didn't make the most accurate bends
 * took a while
 * good first start to bending plexiglass
 * heated too quickly at first and made bubbles in plexiglass
 * needed two people one person heated with heat gun while the other bent the plexiglass

2. Built the bending table
 * put one large piece of plywood on the bottom with another piece smaller plywood and the c channel mounted on top
 * Attached a hinge to the piece of plywood on top attaching it to another small piece of plywood so we can bend to an angle
 * then we needed to look up a power supply for the heating element to heat and bend plexiglass

3. Power supply for bending table
 * needed an adjustable resistance
 * used a dimmer
 * used circuit breaker as shown to provide safety
 * Here is a wiring diagram of how the table was wired

4. Bends with Bending Table
 * need to make sure you don't heat too much by controling temperature with a dial and using infared thermometer
 * heat up slowly
 * bend to desired angle
 * turn off table
 * let cool
 * requires many materials to make table
 * table limited to specific width
 * Makes perfect bends

5. Making box display case
 * cut out plus sign shape making every side 3 inches
 * bent up the 4 sides
 * Didn't make clean corner
 * next time I will bend up two side and glue on the other two

6. Making better cuts on plexiglass
 * I have been using a small dremel saw to make cuts on plexiglass but this makes rough edges we must attempt to clean up
 * I thought the scroll saw would make a nice cut on plexiglass but it was difficult to cut and once I got it to cut the plexiglass bonded back together Having the scroll saw blade stuck in the middle I broke the blade trying to get the plexiglass off of saw and there wasn't a clean cut as it melted back together
 * I went back to cutting with dremel saw but found that if you have another person heat with heatgun while cutting it makes cutting easier and cleaner however cleaning edges with heatgun is still somewhat necisary

7. Gluing plexiglass
 * the glue is very watery
 * need a brush to apply while two pieces are together
 * Didn't have brush to apply
 * Used apoxy to glue our minature shelving together

Next Week:
 * Make a better box like display case
 * practice gluing with acrylic glue
 * figure out bending temperatures for differant thicknesses