Bending Acrylic

I built a fixture for bending acrylic sheet a few weeks ago, but today I actually found my first use for it - to make stands for lenses for storage in my new display cabinet.

I wanted my (growing) collection of 50(ish) mm prime lenses to have a new home where they would be on display (because I think they look pretty - others may disagree), but easily accessible (because I intend to use them) and protected from dust and humidity (ditto) . I had wondered about making a cabinet, but on researching prices for tempered glass shelves I decided it was better to buy one “off the shelf” as it were, with a view to adapting it later if I decided I didn;t like the way it worked.

The one I bought is okish - I was not expecting great things, and I didn’t get htem - but it will do. After all it’s the contents that matters, not the cabinet. And after the frustration of getting it together, square, and mounted on the wall it actually looks ok and does the job. But to add all the lenses required a decision on how they should stand. I could have stood them all upright, but may do not have end-caps and would not therefore stand completely upright. I could lie them on their side but they might roll, and taking one out to use it could then be nerve-wracking. For those that have end-caps, the end-cap itself makes a reasonable stand (as well as providing a good place to store the end-cap near the lens), but for the rest a simple stand was required.

Now that my laser cutter is finally working reliably, it only took a few minutes to knock together a design (in lightburn) and cut out a test blank from 2mm clear acrylic (perspex). It took quite a bit longer to remember where I had stored the acrylic bender. And then under a minute to make each required bend.