Reclined plastic boxes

[DWBH]

I'm looking for acrylic boxes, or even plastic, as long as they're reclined and transparent - I can't seem to find them...
Can you guys suggest me some stores or distribuitors?

My goal is to have something similar to this:

[GREEN FUZ]

You might want to consider making one yourself. Sheets of Acrylic/Perspex can be bent to order by the calculated application of heat. Don`t ask me exactly how it`s done but I`m sure the answer is but a Google away.

[jonathan perez]

i would see if theres a plastic/lexan place around your town and see if they can do custom work for you...cheap, bulletproof, and road worthy.

[MKB]

Indeed the stuff can be easily bent if you heat it with a heat gun.  I have bent a few pieces by clamping the sheet with pieces of wood along the bend line, heat the plexiglass along the bend line with a heat gun, then when it gets hot enough it will bend.  You might want to practice with it a few times as you can scorch or melt it if you heat it too much.

I recall seeing some videos of aircraft manufacture in World War 2, they were pulling sheets of plexiglass out of an oven then placing them on metal formers.  The plexiglas looked limp as a noodle, and conformed immediately to the metal form.  Maybe an oven can be used to do a better job of heating than the heat gun, but I haven't tried that.

[DWBH]

Heat gun? What's that?
Will an old soldering iron/gun work?

[GREEN FUZ]

I doubt it. I`d imagine the heat needs to be quite controlled with the ability to apply a lot in a quick and measured manner. That or the oven.

Edit: I just Googled "bending perspex". This was top of the page. http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=18&t=3864 I bet there`s loads more.

I know you don`t intend to copy it exactly but the example you showed appears to be a very simple shape supported by a readily available metal enclosure.

[DWBH]

Yeah, I already searched a bit.
However, me doing it myself, I have to improvise.

Nevertheless, if you know of any "reclined plastic boxes", shoot it.

[magikker]

well if you are trying for something similar to what Vex has got going I'd suggest a different material... If you are just looking for a wedge make it out of wood. On the other hand if you need it to be see-through forget I ever posted this.

[GREEN FUZ]

How about some Sloped or Sloping enclosures.

http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg6slp.htm
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=1681&doy=19m7
http://www.dlpc.com.au/ham/met-500.htm
http://www.pactecenclosures.com/Plastic-Enclosures/SH-9VB.html
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.asp?SKU=806-1354&SEARCH=&ID=&DESC=1456FG4WHBU&R=806%2D1354&sid=469EA98028A7E17F
http://www.rose-bopla.com/Prod_Pgs/ConsoleHousings/Prod_12_Executive_Sloped_Housings.htm

[DWBH]

to magikker:
I think it would be nice to see the copper plate... The design will not be like the Wah Probe.
But thanks for your suggestion - wood!

to GREEN FUZ:
Thank you, but none of those is transparent (see-through, you know). Thanks anyway!

[Jaicen_solo]

If you've ever seen commercial acrylic benders, they usually have an element situated underneath a slotted support upon which the perspex is laid, at a set distance. The idea is to only heat a small strip of the material to help reduce deformation.
I suggest that if you just want straight lines as above, you could use a toaster as the heating element, provided you can make the slotted support.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If you only want to do one or two, you could take a rectangular box, and slice through it at an angle, then put the resultant wedge shape on a wooden base.
The thing is, ther eis no advantage (quite the opposite) in having a perspex BASE.

BTW I once met an old guy who had made a small fortune just after WW2 by making all the acrylic covers for the Australia post office's teleprinters..
He did these by making a wooden shape, putting a sheet of acrylic over it, using the heat gun, and then STANDING ON IT! Sure, he didn't have a BIG yacht - but he had a yacht.

[Nasse]

ABS plastic is easy to glue, strong joints

I have seen someone doing photo etching with positive uv-pcb etch resist on polystyrene, it was on some British electronics magazine years ago

[MKB]

Heat gun? What's that?
Will an old soldering iron/gun work?

A heat gun is a device similar to a hair dryer, used to heat and strip paint and tile flooring.  It's also really handy for working with heat shrink tubing. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_gun

A soldering iron or gun probably wouldn't work as you can't get enough of the material heated with the small heat source.

[DWBH]

Thinking of what you guys said.... perhaps I'll build a wooden box (without the sloped face). I'll take a piece of acrylic and glue it to the wood, with glue (those from those glue guns)....
The circuits will separately rest in a B-sized metal box.

[runmikeyrun]

heat gun gets a LOT hotter than hairdryer so don't try the latter it won't work.  A guy in my auto shop class was being funny trying to dry his hair w/ heat gun and about Michael Jacksoned himself. 

In shop class in 6th grade we made neat little things out of twisted plexiglas.  We heated them up in the oven and when you took them out you could bend them into about any shape.  If you made a wooden or metal mold you could heat one in your paint shop's toaster oven and mold it to it.  Don't burn it though it produces stinky toxic fumes.  You can get clear @ home depot/lowes and spray paint the inside a color but we had every color of the rainbow in shop so if you find a supplier you can get colors.

[disto]

....A guy in my auto shop class was being funny trying to dry his hair w/ heat gun.....

i can only imagine how much that could hurt!


ive done some work with plastic in the past at school we had this special heater called a strip bender i think! it was just like the heating eliment from a electric bar heater! you could try heating the plastic over a toaster or over a gas cooker on a very low flame and at a distance then when the plastic is soft enough to bend use some wood to bend round. could be a bit dangerous though but i dont think it would be hard to do