ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

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SectionsPrepare your plastic.Make preliminary cuts.Mark and shape the ABS.Bend the ABS.Bend a CD caddy.Bend a pen and pencil rack.

Tools

Tools (continued)

Relevant parts

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ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set

"Just one word: plastics." There's a great future in it.

Author: Charles Platt Time required: 1½ hours Difficulty: Easy

x 2 x 0

Last night I dreamed of a magical material that would be bendable like metal, as easy toshape as wood, and would never warp, split, or splinter. It would be washable, would neverneed painting, and would last almost forever.

This morning, when I sat down at my desk, the stuff from my dream was right in front of me. Itfact, it had been there for several months, ever since I made a pen rack from ABS.

ABS is acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, a plastic that really does have dreamlike qualities. Ifyou’ve ever picked up a Lego block, you’ve handled ABS. Car stereo installers and modelrailroad buffs sometimes use it, but craftspeople and hobbyists generally have been slow toadopt it. You can saw it, drill it, sand it, whittle it, and drive screws into it, and it never warps,splits, or splinters. Best of all, you can bend it quickly into complex shapes by using a simplegadget that costs around $200.

To acquaint you with its pleasures (and a few quirks), I’ll describe how to build a page stand —a simple work aid that facilitates copy-typing by holding pages upright beside your videomonitor. After that I’ll describe a portable CD caddy and a pen rack, and will suggest moreprojects you can make.

From MAKE MagazineThis project first appeared on the pages of MAKE magazine.

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Circular saw, handheld Ryobi 18V, 5½" blade(from Lowe’s or mail order)Deburring toolDrill, with ½" Forstner bitFile, coarse, metal, (optional)Plastic bender Available from FTM Inc.(http://thefabricatorssource.com). Some otherclever plastic-working tools are available here,too.

Saw, Japanese-style, pull-to-cut I use theVaughan Extra-Fine Cross-Cut BearSaw, 9½", 17tpi. Check your local home improvement store.Table saw, and blade, (optional)Ultimate jigsaw, (optional) DeWalt DC330 XRPwith Bosch T101BF blades (available from Lowe’sor mail order)

ABS plastic sheet, white 1/8" thick

ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

EditStep 1 — Prepare yourplastic.

EditStep 2 — Make preliminarycuts.

Pieces of ABS a couple of feet square are availableonline, but you’ll save money if you truck on down toyour nearest plastic supply house and buy it likeplywood, in 4'×8' sheets. To discover whether youactually have a nearby plastic supply house, searchfor “plastic supply” in your yellow pages or GoogleLocal.

http://HobbyLinc.com has ABS sheet and a lot ofextruded structural shapes for model making.eStreetPlastics has limited stock at good prices athttp://stores.ebay.com/eStreetPlastics. RegalPiedmont Plastics, online athttp://piedmontplastics.com, has a huge inventory andmany supply centers around the nation, but you’llhave to collect it yourself, and they may not be willingto cut 4'×8' sheets into smaller pieces.

Stock colors include black, white, and “natural,” whichis beige. Sheets usually are textured on one side,which is the side that should face outward, since it ismore scratch-resistant than the smooth side. To buildthe page stand, you will need white ABS, 1/8" thick.

Because the plastic surface you end up with is thesurface you start with, you’ll have to be careful not toscuff or scratch it while working. Clean your benchthoroughly before you begin, taking special care toremove any metal particles, which will tend to becomeembedded in the plastic.

Use wooden shims in the jaws of your vise, and avoidresting the plastic accidentally on any sharp tools orscrews. Working with ABS requires a cleanenvironment and a very gentle touch.

You’ll bend up on the blue dashed line, and down onthe red dashed lines. To make rounded inner corners,drill ½" holes (blue circles) before cutting. There’snothing else to it: no fasteners or additional sections.Very often an ABS object can be fabricated by makingmultiple bends in a single piece.

Begin by cutting a 7"×16" rectangle out of a largerpiece. Because ABS is not brittle, you cannot just draga knife to score a groove and then snap it, as you canwith acrylics. A saw is necessary.

The bad news is that if you use a table saw, theplastic will tend to melt and stick to the blade. This willlead quickly to kickback, in which the blade grabs yourworkpiece and hurls it at you powerfully enough tobreak bones. If you have extensive experience using atable saw, you are actually more vulnerable, becausethe reflexes and cautions you have developed whiledealing with wood will not be adequate for workingwith soft plastic. Please take this warning seriously!

Avoid using a table saw to cut plastic. Ifyou must use one, install a specialplastic-cutting blade.

Fortunately there is a simple answer: buy a plastic-cutting blade, which has a larger number of thickerteeth to absorb the heat.

ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

EditStep 3

EditStep 4 — Mark and shape theABS.

EditStep 5

The blade I use is a Freud 80T, but there are others. Ifyou use a blade that is not suitable, it will start toaccumulate smears of plastic on its flat area. This isthe final warning you will get. Clean that blade with asolvent such as acetone, and never use it for ABSagain.

To make long, straight cuts you can also use a panelsaw (big and expensive, but safe and accurate), or ahandheld circular saw guided with a straightedgeclamped to the sheet. This is the method I prefer. Abattery-powered circular saw has enough it less likelyto melt the plastic.

For smaller cuts, a band saw is trouble-free. SinceABS is soft, you can also use hand tools with verylittle effort, especially a Japanese-style, pull-to-cutsaw, which makes exceptionally clean cuts. Whenpulling it, be careful that it doesn’t jump out of the cutand across your hand.

Mark your cutouts. After you have your 7"×16"rectangle, clean its edges with a deburring tool, thenplace it textured-side down and use a fine-point water-soluble pen to draw the shape that you’re going totake out of the piece.

Afterward, you can wipe the lines away with a dampcloth. Don’t use a permanent marker, as the solventsto clean it will dissolve the plastic.

Drill holes at the inside corners. ABS tends to open afissure when you bend it at any inside corner whereyou don’t have a smooth radius. Therefore, you needto make ½" holes at these corners, as shown on theplan (shown in step 2).

I use a template (available from any stationery store)to mark the circles. If I don’t take this step, I tend toforget to drill the holes.

A regular ½" bit is too aggressive for drilling ABS; itwill tend to jam itself into the plastic within one turn ofthe drill. Forstner bits work better.

Cut out the piece. After drilling the holes, cut aroundthe edges of the shape using a band saw, hand saw,or jigsaw. The plan shows some of the outside corners

ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

EditStep 6 — Bend the ABS.

EditStep 7

rounded, in addition to the inside corners, but this is amatter of taste.

My favorite sawing tool is a DeWalt XRP jigsaw usingBosch blades, designed for hardwood or plastic. Thiswill cut complex curves in ABS as easily as scissorscutting paper.

Saw slightly outside of each line, so that ifthe blade wanders you can use a coarsemetal file to straighten the edge afterward.

My favorite sawing tool is a DeWalt XRP jigsaw usingBosch blades, designed for hardwood or plastic. Thiswill cut complex curves in ABS as easily as scissorscutting paper.

Remove cut marks and add bend marks. Remove anylines that you no longer need because they willbecome harder to erase after you apply heat duringthe bending process.

Clean the plastic with a soft sponge and dishwashingliquid (never use solvents such as xylene or acetone),then make just a couple of dots to remind you whereyou will position each bend.

This is the fun part. You need a plastic bender, whichis an electric heating element mounted in a long, thinbox that you place on your workbench.

The bender I use is made by FTM, a company thatoffers all kinds of neat gadgets for working withplastic. Their cheapest bender is just over $200 with a2' element. You can get a 4' model for about $50more. Be careful; the bender will inflict serious burns ifyou happen to rest your hand on it accidentally, andsince it has no warning light, you can easily forget youhave left it plugged in. Gloves are definitely advisable.

Simply lay the plastic over the hot element for a brieftime (25–30 seconds for 1/8" ABS, 40–45 seconds for3/16", and up to 1 minute for ¼"). If you overheat theplastic, you’ll smell it, and when you turn it over, it willlook like brown melted cheese. Naturally you shouldlearn to intervene before the plastic reaches thatpoint.

ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

EditStep 8 — Bend a CD caddy.

ABS is ready to bend when it yields to gentlepressure. Take it off the bender and bend it away fromthe side that you heated. If you bend it toward the hotside, the softened plastic will bunch up inside thebend, which doesn’t look nice.

You can work with it for about half a minute, and whenyou have it the way you want it, spray water on it tomake it set quickly. Alternatively, if you need moretime, you can reheat it. Since the force necessary tobend the sheet increases in proportion with the lengthof the bend, a long bend can be difficult, so I usuallyapply a loose vise at intervals.

When making multiple bends in ABS, the sequence isimportant. If you don’t think ahead, you may find that abend you just made creates a shape that won’t lie flaton the bender anymore, leaving you unable tocontinue. The page stand design is fairly simple, butyou’ll be in trouble if you don’t check the plan andmake the bend on the dashed blue line after all thoseon the dashed red lines.

When creating your own designs, it’s safest to modelthem in paper or cardboard first.

TIP FROM THE MAKE LAB: If the $200pricetag for a professional bender is toosteep for you, don’t worry, you can buildone. Tap Plastics sells a bare 3' heating element, andwith a little plywood, tinfoil, and fiberglass tape (alsofrom Tap) you can make your own bender for about$65.

Use two pieces of ¼" plywood, placed ¾" apart tomake a raised channel on another piece of plywood.Then, cover the entire channel with several layers ofthick tinfoil and a few layers fiberglass tape. Lay theheating element in the channel, plug it in, and startbending. For complete video instructions, check outhttp://tapplastics.com.

One type of object that’s difficult to make with ABS isa box. If you cut a cross shape (like the Red Crosslogo) and then bend the 4 arms of the cross upward tomake 4 sides of a box, their edges will not alignaccurately, and you will have no easy way to jointhem together — unless you try plastic welding. Somepeople claim they can make good plastic welds usingappropriate equipment, but I’ve never seen a reallyneat weld made by hand.

Rather than try to force ABS to form conventional boxshapes, it’s easier to make unconventional boxshapes that are appropriate for ABS. The diagramshows a plan for a very durable 2-piece traveling CDcaddy. Many soft binders are sold for CDs, but I like

ABS Plastic Fantastic Desk Set — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

http://makeprojects.com/Project/ABS-Plastic-Fantastic-Desk-Set/1324/1[2012/6/6 上午 10:08:33]

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to keep CDs in their jewel cases, and I wanted anindestructible hard-shell caddy that would let me dothis.

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