Experimenting

For this final project we are required to use an unfamiliar material and test it within three different experiments. Acrylic is a material that most ID students have worked with and use often but isn't something I have used before. I have been intrigued by it because it can be heat bended, cut on the laser cutter, and finishing techniques/adhereing itself and other materials. Within each of the experiments it will be interesting to also work with different thicknesses of the acrylic. Knowing how this material works will be very important for my future in the ID program.

For the experiments:
1. Using the laser cutter I will see how well shapes can be cut into the acrylic. I would like to see how well round shapes as well as tight, straight cuts can be achieved. I also would like to work with etching, seeing how deep the etch can go as well as style of the etch.
2. Heat bending is another thing I have seen many other students doing. With the acrylic I would like to see how long it takes until it bends smoothly without cracking. Either working with the heat gun and the table heat bender. Also is it possible to use the vacuumform the acrylic?
3. Finishing on the acrylic will be important to see what materials I can use to either paint on or use to adhere. Different types of paint (spray, latex, acrylic, oil...) will be applied to the acrylic to see what sticks and what doesn't. For the adhesives I will try different types (Weld-on, acrylic glue, hot glue, elmer's, gorilla...) in order to see which will actually stick.

Hopefully these experiments will show me what works and what doesn't with acrylic. For my final project I haven't decided what to build yet but hopefully when I see what happens I'll be inspired.