I've been looking for some sheet of frosted acrylic or some kinda of semi-transparent clear/white acrylic, but havent had any luck. So then I saw some spray on glass/plastic frosting, but I dont know If I'll be able to glue the acrylic sheets together if I have the frosting on there. Has anyone tried something like this or seen something similiar done? And what is the best acrylic glue to use?
So you want to make it like it's frost? I've found sandpaper and dremel to be extremely useful for that
ACRYLITE® makes a frosted plastic sheet called GP P-95 Pastel Ice. . here is a link. http://www.portplastics.com/signGraphics/signProducts/4_1_1_2_cyroContManuf.html It is transparent but looks frosted. The regular p-95 is also frosted "matte" but more transparent. You can get it at any plastic supply like reece or regal. Just look in the yellow pages.
sandpaper is your friend just take some fine grit sand paper and go over it until it looks perty. and if im not mistaken, you can get an interesting effect if u sand one side and not the other, so when u look on the smooth side its all reflective like, but u cant quite see thru
I'd say about 1000 grit should frost it up nice and smooth you have to be consistant when sanding.. don't end up scratching up ur acrylic case..
If you want a perfect sandblasted look, I'd say take it to someone who will do it for you, sandpaper will just put nasty scratches in it, yes it'll 'frost' it up, but it won't look too good most likely. Anyone know what a sandblaster will do to acrylic? Just curious if it'll give it a deep-frost look or if it'll kill it, lol.
i had a friend frost on a etching with a can of the spray on frosting stuff. Looks really sweet for an etching. It stays on very well too, but this was done on a window and not an acrylic case. as for glue i've been recommended by several people to use weld-on #3 for bonding acrylic pieces together.
Thanks for the replies everybody, I'll have to try out a couple things on some scrap pieces and see what gives me the best results.
use sand paper but sand in one direction. that always works out good start with some 600 grit and then go to 1000 grit. the effect is awsome from the non-sanded side
make like Batman and get yourself some Frosting Spray trust me it exists ive used it myself its quite good...
When you say glue, I hope you mean Weld-on. Glue will turn white and ugly. The way Weld-On works is that you put the pieces together how u want them, then you will take a syrange (sp???) full of Weld-On and run it on the outside edge. The Weld-On will go under the top sheet through capilary action, and it will chemically bond the two, no glue needed. The finaly result is a clean looking bond. And this is no cheap glue substitute. Consider this stuff as strong a cementing them together. It takes a lot of force to break the two sheets apart! If you have more questions, ask me. There are many posts reguarding this!
Yeah thats what I meant by glue. I didnt really know what to use, of course I wasnt going to use regular glue. But I have seen plenty of products that say they are meant for joining acrylic. I wish I could remember what I used back in middle school. We made like a pen holder using like 6 sheets of different colored acrylic pieces. Used some kinda of glue/weld stuff to bond all the sheet together then cut a shape out and sanded the edges down. So what i'm trying to do is recreate that effect. Does that weld stuff work like that? Not just to seal an edge....like cover the whole sheet with it and then bond to complete sheets toghether???
I believe "airplane glue" or model glue may work, as it supposedly melts the plastics together. Sandpaper should do the job, so long as you don't use too low of a grit. Too low will give you deep scratches that will end up looking like a failed etching job when you are done...not very pretty. Cool idea...I was thinking about frosting my window as well.
Well, i guess if you were to put some weld-on into a spray bottle and spray a sheet you could bond it to another. I cant guarantee this, but in theory it would work! Go for it, its worth a shot! If you do a test of this with some scrap, please tell us how it goes!
I had another idea. I believe that spraying acetate onto a sheet of acrylic would give you the frosting affect that you want! If you don't have access to acetate, I believe that it is exactly the same as nail polish remover! Just don't leave it on too long!
Yeah I'll have to try that. I'll probably be ordering some acrylic some time this week, and I'll post my results as soon as I'm able to test all these suggestions out. I hope it turns out like a want it to.
So whats the real difference between plexi and acrylic and such? I know exactly what I *want* to build. Though I dont know what the best stuff to order is. I was looking at the acrylic on www.mcmaster.com and figured I'd just order what they have since it sounds pretty good to me and the price seemed reasonable. Course I havent really done anything like this before so I dont know.
