Which plastic for cutting and bending?

[Mike Dempsey]

Got a mate who makes and sell box frame pictures. When he attends craft shows he doesn't want to put price stickers on each box frame. He has asked me to make him some plastic clips that will have 2 90 degree bends in them they can hang over the back and the front bit hang over the front where a price sticker can go. That way he can have a variety of prices which are easily swapped out and replaced in seconds.
I have bought a sheet of polycarbonate and a sheet of Plexiglas acrylic both 3m thick to try out.
Which one do members here think is easier for cutting on the laser and bending wit a hot air gun.

thank

Mike

[John Lifer]

If you try, you CAN bend the Acrylic with your laser. Set the part on an elevated platform (I use a piece of 2x4) and weigh the side on the wood.
Get way out of focus (about 2-3 inches) and 'engrave' a quarter inch wide line the width of your part at the bend line. You have to play with it a bit, but it will heat and allow you to bend.
In my opinion, safer that a heatgun. Forget the polycarb. It will engrave green...... and stink bad. laser degrades the material

[Mike Null]

If you can find 1/16" cast acrylic it will make the job easier. Extruded acrylic is likely to break.

We use heat benders for name tags and table tents etc. Maybe one of these will work for you. There is also a DYI kit available cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...sl_x5nl9u11t_p

[Doug Fisher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arjRtCjI9AQ

Or about 16 seconds into this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_g_odCplHE

[Bill George]

Are you sure your not re-inventing the wheel? Unless your going to laser engrave something special on those clips I think those are already on the market.

[John Lifer]

Pretty poor video Doug. Sorry, not yours. If you do it RIGHT, you don't bubble it and it will bend. I usually bend by hand to get angle right, and if heated well enough, it won't break. I made odd sized tags with 180 degree bend.