"Welding" Lexan or plexiglass?

[slydog]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( With or without bolts, a good accurate fit is a must. Any gaps that must be bridged with extra adhesive or sealer will fail first.

You may need to rent some de-humidifiers for the cubicles, because you're going to have SERIOUS condensation! )</font>

More very good points! I was also thinking about the condensation and expect that to be a problem. After talking to the friend last night, he says all the ice sculpting company wants is for us to build the box for them. They are taking care of placing it in the ice, putting in the TV's, and all wiring and hook up.

That makes my job that much simpler, however, I don't think they have considered alll of the possible problems you guys have brought up here.

I'm wondering, do yall think making the top panel angle towards the rear of the box so top condensation would run to the back wall and down, and also routing say a 1/4'' channel around the entire inside bottom with several weep holes drilled through the bottom in this channel to allow any condensation to drain would be a good addition? I know it wouldn't prevent condensation, but might be an added precaution to help if there was a lot of it.

Ken

 

[Mansker]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

Methylene Dichloride, Ethylene dichloride, 1,1,2-trichloroethane. are solvents for glueing plexiglas. I would make the box out of 1/2 plex and make the lid 2' bigger than the box, I wouldn't add any weep holes because the melting Ice water will weep in rather than out. the surfaces to be mated have to be machined flat, I use a hypodermic syringe to transfer the solvent, if the edges are flat the solvent weeps under the plastic and seals it with a clear seal. put the tv in and seal the lid and the wire holes with clear silicone. it should be air and water tight. This should keep it from condensation and the Ice should keep the tv cool enought for the duration. <font color="blue">Just my thoughts </font>

 

[PILOON]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

Generally acetone can be used to fuse lexan or plexi.
It will soften and fuse when it evaporates.
But then again silicone will do a good job as someone else mentioned.

Polishing the edges is accomplished with a low flame as with a butane torch.
You simply pass by with the flame straight on, not too close, in a reasonably slow speed. I kind of fan the flame from left to right carefully so as to not darken the plexi.
Practice on a scrap piece, not hard to do at all.

Cutting plexi is easily done with most woodworking tools.
Table saw, jig saw etc.
One problem is that heat is generated which can bind things up and then comes cracks.

For fine work a router is very practical.

One trick I used was to spray a bit of liquid detergent using a pump sprayer. The soap acts as a lubricant thereby preventing meltdown.

Made an aircraft windshield using a jigsaw that way.
(I formed it against the damaged unit using a Pizza Oven as the heat source)

Also use fine toothed blades.

 

[SPIKER]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

wow sounds like a FUN project to get PAID for doing! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

we have uesd some in the past to make gaurds in/on equipment we made, expecially usefull for stuff which requires sight while providing pritection such as doors or lids on packaging equipemnt.

we used some caulking type stuff provided by the same place that we got the poly from... also is the screen side going to be exposed to public? as viewing THROUGH ie would not work too well in my oppinion.

thickness depends on HOW they are making the bar around it? forming using blocks or freezing water around the tv enclosures?

if all you have to build is the enclosure then I would think 3/8' would be plenty unless they need it to support the ice too. then well I would think somethign like 1/2 at max would be needed this stuff is very strong and will support a good bit of weight. also there should be some sort of way to keep water from melting ice getting on the guests & floor, nothing worse than wet snooty people! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

MarkM /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[chim]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

Sounds like fun. Here's the site for a plastic welder we messed around with for a while. We had a customer who wanted to have some plastic tubing welded (in lieu of solvent-cemented) for some acid lines:

http://www.seelye-plastics.com/sales/products/products.htm

Question. Is there a low temperature limit for the operation of the TV? I don't know the technology of the plasma screen, but I have some LCD instruments that are kinda funky when it's real cold outside...................chim

 

[slydog]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

Wow...lemme try and answer all those questions. We will build the box, they will cut a hole in the ice bar and put the box in it. Thanks for the info on the propane torch polishing!! That will save me some money over having GE do that part. As far as drip/drainage, that will be the ice companys problem, and man, with a ton of ice I don't know how they do it, but I'm sure interested to see. I do know they use lighted pedestals for their sculptures. As far as temps go on plasmas tv's, not sure their either, but just feeling around my big 36" tube tv, it really doesn't put out that much heat from the touch. I'm going to talk with the ice carving company about specifics later today. Thanks for all the advice!

Ken

 

[cleatus]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

<font color="black"> </font> I've glued 3/4 plexi with the water like solvant that the supply houses sell. These were 4' shelves 12" deep, put 2" strips on back and sides screwed to walls, with 2" strip glued to front. El Finix displayed jars of salsa, chips and mixes on these. I have not had to repair any and they have been up 6yrs. You can use their applactor bottle to add extra solvant until you see that the joint is filled. Please rember to flame polish edges before glueing.

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

A table saw works great, especially if you have a variable speed on it. Slow is key here. Less heat build up. The best, however, is to use a router with a special blade. I used my Dremel to make the windows for the helm station on my boat. Then flamed the edges as was pointed out. Use a straight edge and a spiral cut bit for this job. Works great to pull the chips out. There's also special drill bits for drilling plastics. Regular ones fracure the hole walls with the chips and those cracks start traveling. That's why the spiral bits work well, too. But in any event, always flame the edges to relieve the stresses.

 

[slydog]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

Well, I ended up getting a great price from the supplier to actually build the boxes for me for a little more than what I could have gotten the materials themselves. So I became the middle man and more than doubled my expense on my profit. They did a great job on the boxes and I can post a couple of pics if anyone would like to see the boxes themselves. It does make me want to buy some plexi and bonding agent and build some stuff though, but I have no idea what I might do with what I would make. Would just like to try it now and see how it turns out. Thanks again for all your advice!

Ken

 

[slydog]

Re: \"Welding\" Lexan or plexiglass?

If anyone is interested, here is how the finished box was used for the flat screen.