Bending Acrylic

I’ve had a large 2000VA UPS here under my desk for some time, and it uses an external battery pack. The problem is, some time ago I lost the top half of the battery pack, so the batteries and the wiring was exposed.

I leaned a sheet of acrylic against it to prevent feet/dogs/falling objects from getting into the batteries, but I had always intended to construct some sort of real cover. I was fiddling around with the pack a couple days ago, and realized that if I could bend the sheet of acrylic I had stuck there temporarily, with two right angles, it could make a nice little cover.

A quick youtube search later, and I had a plan for bending the sheet.

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I used this board as both a support, as well as the form, as it was the same width as I wanted the top/middle section to be.

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After gently heating along the bend to be made, I bent down one side of the acrylic at about a 90 degree angle.

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Then I bent the other side, and cooled the piece down with some water from the garden hose.

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Unfortunately, the first bend I heated a bit too quickly, causing some sections to bubble and look less than pretty.

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But I had much better success with the second section, by heating it more slowly, the bend didn’t bubble and came out clear.

IMG_0846And finally, the cover is in place over the partially disassembled battery pack!

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