Since it is going on a excavator, I fugured i would take a stab at it here. I need to get some 1/2'' lexon formed for the cab on my menzi, does any one know of someone who can do something like that?
RobVG has a thread on here about doing that w/ a homemade form
From what I have learned is that the thicker stuff is harder to work with, it needs to be Cook beforehand to remove the moisture and to keep clarity. Then it needs to be heated to form it.
Pro Glass is worth a try - http://www.proglasswindows.com/ The owner did some custom parts for a 56 ford funny car for a friend using a piece of the fiberglass plug for the body. He said forming lexan is very technique dependent, that he can give someone all the tools equipment and material and show him how and he will still have a very hard time doing it without wrecking the material.
Thanks I will give them a try, I have played around with the thought of doing some, but knowing how special the stuff is to work with is what is holding me back from doing it myself.
Just a thought... Lexan is a polycarbonate material that can be 'cold worked'. In other words, you can form it without heat depending on the desired outcome and shape of the piece. Heat is your friend, to be sure, but depending on what you are trying to accomplish it may or may not be necessary. I worked with Lexan for years and never knew that. Then one day I read an article about cold forming it and went "Bullship!" So I took a piece of quarter inch thick scrap Lexan and went over to my sheet metal brake and darned if I couldn't make a 90 dgree bend in it without breaking it. It was one of those 'duh' moments... Now it's true the thicker the piece is, and the larger the area to be formed is, the more force needed to accomplish the forming if doing it cold. And 'spring back' may come into play such that you'll need to work the piece beyond the desired dimension so when the force is released it 'springs back' to the desired dimension. It basically comes down what you are trying to accomplish. For instance, if you are simply after a crease in the Lexan so that it follows a bend in your windshield at the center, as an example, you may be able to find a sheet metal shop (or a guy with a bender in his barn) to do the job. A 'bubble' that would require deformation across an entire plane may present an insurmountable task when using 1/2" as the PSI to do the job and give the correct form may be extreme as opposed to simply heating it. But as was mentioned, plastics like polycarbonates and ABS need to have their moisture content at a low level to avoid blistering due to the micro-droplets expanding at an 1800 to 1 ratio (i.e. steam). Now if the Lexan only needs to be bent in one axis of the plane, say bowed from top to bottom, and the other axis (side to side) will remain straight, you may be able to cold form it with a little trial and error assuming you are aware that the surfaces need to be protected from scratches, dimples, etc. A lot depends on the amount of bending needed. Looking at the windshields on a Menzi, they look like they are bent in only one axis and could perhaps be cold formed. If you were to attempt it remember to do the bend first and then cut it to length as cold forming a bend near an edge is about as difficult as finding a drop dead gorgeous 40 year old stacked virgin. Don't know if any of that is helpful, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as someone who has worked with plastics for many years. (Also, here's a link I found with a quick check on Google regarding cold forming plastics. Page 7 is the page about cold forming. I haven't read the whole thing, but the part about the 'minimum radius' seems conservative at best based on my experience, as I have have used much smaller radii with success. Your radius is huge.) http://www.curbellplastics.com/technical-resources/pdf/polycarbonate-fab-guide-makrolon.pdf
Getting off subject, but I've seen oodles of machines with glass broken out. Besides night time hooligans, what's the biggest cause of breakin' glass? Operator frustration, or what you tell the boss "it was a rock". Just the jaring from digging and such? Thanks AM
i personally hate any window material other than glass. anything else scratches so bad you cant see through it in a few months anyway.
We did a 953 with plastic once. In 6 months it was not safe to run so we sent it up to the local glass guy. Kept the old windshield for a ground pad to slide under machines on.
Mine have all been from tree branches. Either running into one or a track carrying one up.
with some time won't it either get a yellowish tinge to it and fog up from the sun, specially in hotter states?