Hi Folks,

Has anyone got any ideas for the best material to use for curved aeroscreen - I'd prefer not to use heat unless I have to.

Here's my mock up in card.




Any ideas / suggestions?

Al

2mm polycarbonate will bend to that form easily

fibre glass?

not GRP - I want clear

I wondered about 3mm 'LEXAN CLEAR EXELL D' but wasn't sure it'd take the shape. would 2mm be rigid enough?

Al

Why dont you want to heat it as long as you have something to form it around, gentle heating with a hot air gun will be fine

quote:

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Originally posted by Mistron
not GRP - I want clear

I wondered about 3mm 'LEXAN CLEAR EXELL D' but wasn't sure it'd take the shape. would 2mm be rigid enough?


Al

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Why not use bubble screen of motorbike i was going to use ducati one still have it somewhere

quote:

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Originally posted by 40inches

quote:

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Originally posted by Mistron
not GRP - I want clear

I wondered about 3mm 'LEXAN CLEAR EXELL D' but wasn't sure it'd take the shape. would 2mm be rigid enough?


Al

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2mm would be fine. However I have some 3mm Exell D if you let me know the radius you want to bend to I will see if it will.

[Edited on 27-5-14 by 40inches]

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Well, I'm pleased to confirm that 3mm lexan did the job very well, with the assistance of the gas cooker.

I read all the horror stories about Lexan bubbling internally when you got it hot enough to bend, so I tried it with an off-cut first, then with the screen profile. Both went without incident.

It's not quite tight enough a curve yet - i'm workign it slowly, bit at a time, but it has enough defelction now that it could be bolted into place, but this would mean the screen has stress in it, so I'll probably keep going and get it as good a fit as I can.


Al

Last time I bent some plastic I aimed to bend it too far, and accept that it will bounce back a certain percentage. As you already know what you're aiming for, and what you ended up with, you should be able to calculate how far to take it.

With regards to heating, it seemed like it could get relatively hot and pliable without incident. But I didn't have much luck reheating it, that's when things got messy (bubbles and stress cracks from memory). I'm not sure what happens inside but it does seem to be a 'one off'.

I don't know what type of plastic I was heating though, so I suspect your experiences may vary.