Playing with Plexiglas

[MaryAnn]

I just had some plexiglas "interior skylight covers" installed in my house. They look great; you can't tell anything is even there, literally. Question is....when it comes time to clean them, how do I keep from scratching them?

MA

[willbrett]

Schlepporello wrote:

one writer stated that using GoJo (yep, the hand cleaning cream) would not only clean the Plexiglas, but would hide the little swirl marks you see with time.

Be careful which style of GoJo you buy. I wouldn't try the stuff with any abrasives in it (walnut shells, pumice, etc.), as you'll likely end up with some pretty vicious swirls and scratches. If you rub the soap between your fingers and feel anything gritty or sandy, I'd avoid it.

If I recall correctly, the old fashioned original GoJo is abrasive free, and shouldn't cause any scratching.

Best of luck!

-Brett

[MaryAnn]

She asked me to make her a stool to stand on for their wedding. She'd like to be close to the same height as her beau whilst they are exchanging their vows.

And you're absolutely certain she wasn't kidding? If not, she sure has a good sense of self and a great sense of humor, because a goodly portion of the attending populace is going to be suppressing giggles.

MA

[rocksanddirt]

<snip>
And the stool ought to look pretty sharp once I get the cut edges buffed to clear. My aim is to make it look like it was crafted from crystal.

Nice! I bet folks in the back won't even realize there's a stool.

[TubaGoon]

Schlepporello, that looks REALLY awesome. It will look very classy indeed at the wedding!!! Let me know if you are thinking about making anything tuba-y....

[TubaGoon]

Yeah, I was wondering if you were thinking of building one of those types of stands. I'm not sure what I think of them to be honest. I have one of those K&M ones where it holds the Tuba upright, and have always kinda preferd that than having it sit on the bell. I know that having it rest on the bell won't hurt it, I'm just worried about someone bumping into it or something of that nature while it's on the bell...
That being said, let me know if you decided to make one of those types of rests where the bell sits in it - I would be very interested, and I think it would look very sharp. A little blue felt (or whatever color one pleases) one places that may be rough on the horn and you've got yourself one heck of a stand!

[Carroll]

Wow! That thing is gorgeous.

[TubaGoon]

Wow! That thing is gorgeous.

Indeed! Nice job, it looks like it's made of ice or crystal - very classy and sharp (#)!

[ralphbsz]

Plexiglas is amazing stuff. Fun to work with. A bit tedious (the polishing gets boring), but the results can be spectacular. I've done quite a bit of it, including molding plexiglas by vacuum-slumping it over molds.

For glueing, don't use superglue. Instead get some dedicated plexiglas glue. For small joints, that stuff is just MEK (Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone), probably the nastiest solvent around. For bigger joints, it is a creamy slurry of acrylic in MEK. Available at plexiglas stores. If you use it on well-polished joints, it leaves the joints totally transparent, so much so that spectators will think the piece was molded or machined out of a single piece.

Now the warning: plexiglas can be cut on normal saws, and makes normal shavings. Always wear safety glasses, never rub your eyes when working with plexiglas, and make sure none of the dust or shavings get into your eyes! The shavings are very sharp, and if they get stuck in the eye, they will scratch the heck out of the cornea. And because they are transparent when wet, they are completely invisible, so the eye doctor can't even remove them, because he doesn't know where they are. In my case, they ended up flushing my eyeball with water for 15 minutes (not pleasant).