Is soften acrylic plastic compressible?

Hi

Acrylic plastic becomes soft because the bonds between the long polymer chains become weak. Therefore the polymer molecule can easily move relative to each other.

Therefore you can not compress the plastic to any significant degree without fundamentally changing the polymer molecules, but then you have a different material! Maybe this is possible at high pressures

Arman

It is very difficult to hot press a sheet into a thinner sheet because of the friction at the interface between the die and the sheet. The thermoplastic polymer is formable at elevated temperatures, but sheet compression is not a viable sheet thinning process.

You should research hot rolling of polymers as an alternative.

Do you have any idea of how the polymeric materials were initially processed into uniform smooth faced sheets in the first place?

Thank you all for your replies. It isn't that I just want a 1/8" sheet. I was wondering if I can make a GRIN lens this way.

Try it. A fat disk, heated to just above its softening temperature, squished axially (edges free to expand) & cooled in the squished state will probably have a radial distribution of refractive index. Whether this distribution of refractive index will be strong enough or suitable to make a useful GRIN lens is another question.