Pressing Things Between 2 Plastic Sheets

It logs the important plastic parameters so you can reproduce them on any other press.

Pressing things between 2 plastic sheets.

Although paper was originally made in single sheets by hand almost all is now made on large machines. Its higher impact strength makes it a great glass replacement for applications such as garage door windows storm windows and other glazing needs. But plastic will flow under constant strain eventually causing the stress and thus the friction to disappear. Place another old cloth rag on top of the sandwiched leaves.

Optix acrylic sheet is a lightweight impact resistant optix acrylic sheet is a lightweight impact resistant transparent material that is a great replacement for glass in many applications. The plastic can then be trimmed to the required shape. Heat the iron to high. Sandwich your leaves between two sheets of waxed paper.

Cover your ironing board with an old cloth rag so you do not get wax on the board. Press fits rely on constant stress and friction. After the mold closes the parison is inflated like a balloon until it fills the empty cavity. Vacuum forming only works with thin plastics and moulds with no undercuts.

Slowly run the iron back and forth over the cloth rag. My practice is to use a universal setup sheet that allows you have one setup sheet per mold not per machine. The sheet plastic is heated until it becomes soft. Molten plastic in the form of a large droplet called a parison is placed into a two piece clamshell mold.

In steel if you press an oversized pin into a hole they ll stay together indefinitely. Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically and or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood rags grasses or other vegetable sources in water draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface followed by pressing and drying. Place the sandwiched leaves on top of the rag. Do not use steam.

The table with your mould on is lifted into position and a vacuum is used to draw the plastic over the mould.