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Makrolon sheet

Hello all

I want to make my own chuck guard for my lathe and some for my surface/tool grinder. I had bought a smallish sheet of acrylic from B&Q it formed nicely using a hot air gun, but after a week or so it formed cracks (not at the bends surprisingly) and just broke up.

My question is if I buy some say 4mm Makrolon and do the same trick with the hot air gun (assuming that it does bend if you heat it that is?) will it suffer the same fate?

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I should say that the guard I made was "framless" so the sheet was not well supported. I hoped that the Makrolon would be a lot stronger.

On another tack I bought one of those bendy machine lights from Chronos a while ago, if I go near the head of the lamp with my Mitutoyo digital vernier it loses the plot completely!

The first time it happened I thought it had bit the dust, but it is not affected by anything else in the workshop. I had a look inside the head of the lamp thinking there must be something unusual in there but it only houses the on/off switch and the bulb.

So why does it happen? any ideas?

Rich

Reply to
Rich
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--------------------------------------- Should be ok in Makralon, try to keep the bend rads as big as possible-stronger. You should never use acrylic(perspex) for a guard as it shatters like glass. If you have a local plastics firm try PETG rather than Makralon, a lot cheaper and just as good. Mark G

Reply to
Mark G

"Rich" schrieb:

Hi!

Did You cool your Lathe with something containing alcohol? 'cause any Alcohol (Methyl-, ethyl- or IPA) can disintegrate Acryliys just like You describe it.

Makrolon (Polycarbonate) ist al litte bit weaker than Acylics, but mutch less brittle AND not sensitive to Alcohol. So go for it.

No Problem here with PC.

Just a suggestion: Do You use a Tungsten filament Lamp or a such a "Power saving" flourescent lamp? The flourescents use a switching power Supply, wich can irritate electronics with its magnetic/electric high frequency fields.

just my 2 Cents, Michael.

P.S.: Sorry, if something isn't readable, I'm not a native Speaker.

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

P.S.: Sorry, if something isn't readable, I'm not a native Speaker.

------------------------------------------------------ No apologies needed Michael. Your English is better than many natives here.

Cliff.

Reply to
Cliff Coggin

Our next-door neighbour had a problem with one of these last weekend but one.

The supplies switch off if there is no load, so if you look at the output with no load connected it shows 3V only.

He had a problem with two lights on a room and two lights on the stairs, all on one PSU.

The lights in the room worked fine, but the lights on the stairs wouldn't activate the PSU on their own, the room lights had to be on first!

I assume the extra cabling affected what the PSU 'saw' as a load.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

In message , Tim Leech writes

I replaced the PSU (a tenner inc. VAT from my neighbour who does household electrical installations amongst other things). I had to undo and do up at least four screws to manage this. I imagine that I now need a visit from a building inspector to certify the installation.

TTFN

Pete

Reply to
Peter Scales

"Prepair Ltd" schrieb:

One word of Warning: Printed on these PSUs should be a warning:" Do not exceed 1,5m cable between PSU and the Bulb with the widest distance!"

Its because an switch-mode PSU operates at 30 to 80 kHz, and the = LV-cabling can act as an Antenna. So if You exceed this values by far, You can get nasty behavior of all sorts of this PSU. (Eg.: Not starting, flickering, burnout by overload, interference in = Radio and TV)

Michael.

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

Are you sure it was acrylic/perspex and not clear polystyrene, which is more brittle?

If the guard didn't crack at the bends, why not try again? Anneal the whole sheet in the oven before forming; it ought to relieve some internal stresses.

OTOH polycarbonate bends just as well & doesn't shatter so easily as perspex - more likely to save you from injury if it's to be thin sheet!

hth Guy

Reply to
Guy Griffin

Or, get yourself a clear polyethlene cake container available in a range of sizes around ten inches diameter, available at all good hardware stores and kitchen shops......slice in half through the diameter and 'voila' you have your chuck guard and a spare, all for about a fiver! --

Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) ..."There must be an easier way...!"

Reply to
christopher

Careful with Makrolon too. PC HATES aromatics such as you get in petrol, kerosene(paraffin), xylene[xylol], toluene[toluol], etc

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Technicians

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