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Just How Strong is Acrylic?

Just how strong is acrylic? Fancy finding out like this? I think this proves the answer. Without the cage, you wouldn’t stand a chance with this massive salt-water crocodile. For adrenaline junkies a new tourist attraction has opened in Crocasarus Cove, in the heart of the city of Darwin in the northern territories of Australia. With just a pair of goggles and swimming trunks, paying customers get into an acrylic cage, called the “cage of death”. This is then lowered into Choppa’s lair. The cage has no bars, unlike a shark diving cage, this prevents the reptiles from gripping on. There are however deep teeth marks, which apparently put some punters off. They then spend fifteen minutes in the nine foot high cage watching Choppa, who lost both his front feet fighting other crocodiles, try to take a bite out of them. The cage is made from 40mm thick clear acrylic and can withstand everything that Choppa can throw at it, most of our furniture is made from 20mm…. I think it’s probably strong enough!

Home Office Work Station

This home/office work station is ideal for those of us who are short on space, or like a computer work station kept out of the way and tidy. I like the way it seems to snake up the wall, then back over the users head, forming book shelves and book ends. Also the way the bends form the users leg room, then bend up and back, to form the table surface. This leaves a void, which through a slot machined in the front of the desk, a keyboard drawer can be pulled out of for typing, or pushed into out of sight. The whole thing is made from a single piece of acrylic, this is then heat bent into shape, one bend at a time. The un-bent blank, which would be quite a length, needs to be routed first into shape. You’ll notice as it goes up the back of the monitor and starts to form the shelves, it narrows to book width. This modern design looks very stylish, and is certainly something Clearly Modern could produce. We could make this in any available colour of acrylic, I think it would look great in clear.
Shaun

Clearly modern

Designer Acrylic Handbag

This designer acrylic handbag looks great, a very stylish accessory for any modern girl. This particular version has been made exclusively for Chanel, I presume to accessorise a catwalk model. I’m not entirely sure from this picture how this has been constructed, it looks to be made of a single panel of clear acrylic, the individual pockets would open separately. Probably made from 10mm thick clear acrylic, the bag has a routed hand hole and holes for the shoulder straps. Then each accessory, lipstick, sunglasses, purse, keys and phone has its own hole, routed to fit perfectly. I’m not sure how popular these bags would be if they were to go into production, surely handbags are more useful for hiding things, not much chance of that with these. Could we make designer acrylic handbags? I don’t see why not.
Shaun

Clearly modern

Acrylic Robot

It’s not every day i’m asked to build an acrylic robot, these type of bespoke pieces are what I enjoy creating most. After many discussions with our customer, Ryan came up with a detailed plan drawing of what was required. It was then down to me to make it come to life, the difficulty was the customer required several moving parts. The triangular fingers and earrings needed to spin round, so the robot could wear different earrings or rings. The large disc on its chest spins round, this is going to have graphics of different necklaces. The children can then move all of these pieces, mixing and matching various jewels and jewellery. You can go and see our handiwork, as our robot is part of the robot invasion at Hove museum. An intergalactic exhibition including rockets, space toys, robots and ray guns of all shapes and sizes, including many rare vintage collectable items invade the museum in this space age show of robot force.
Shaun

Clearly modern

Space Invaders Acrylic Sofa

Now you can play Space Invaders whilst sitting upon one of them. This sofa is designed in the Bauhaus style, to look like one of the pixelated martians from the classic 80’s game. Made in black and white, this sleek piece of furniture is both fun and functional. Designed by Igor Chak, this version is mainly finished in leather, with memory foam cushions and two glass panel inserts. The attention to detail is obvious, I love the two holes that go right through the back, making the invader’s eyes. The feet also stand out for me, square hollow tubes that are fixed together offset, to give a pixel look. The whole thing looks stunning and could quite easily be made from coloured acrylic. Definitely want one of these in my games room, when I get one of those!
Shaun

Clearly Modern

Curved Acrylic Chair

The lines of this chair flow beautifully down to the base, the lazy curves look stunning and they are not that easy to achieve. The first time I saw this chair I was unsure of its construction method, it almost looks impossible to make. It is formed from one piece of acrylic and cleverly bent into shape, these wide curves can only be achieved using an oven, heating the whole piece of acrylic until it is pliable enough to drape over a former. Not an easy process, and certainly not guaranteed to work perfectly every time. I love the way the two pieces make the back of the chair, forming a perfect triangle when they meet. These pieces would originally have lain either side of the leg, when it was a complete sheet. As the seat is bent forward, the two pieces are bent up to meet around the back, this pulls a natural curve to the seat, making it comfortable to sit on.

Shaun

Clearly Modern

Doll Display Case

It’s not every day that I get to spend with ten air hostesses! Mind you some of them were pretty old, two of the girls fly with B.O.A.C (British Overseas Airways Corporation). This later became British Airways, the rest belong to various other airlines, some old, some right up to the present day uniforms. We were given the job of building a display case to show these Sindy dolls off, our customer told us which order they would like the collection to stand in. The first problem was to find a way of attaching the dolls to the case, this needed to be done so each doll would stand at the correct height, also so the fixing point would not be too visible and spoil the display. Our customer was very happy with the outcome, more importantly though, I had a great day playing with ten trolley dolleys.
Shaun

Clear Acrylic Cot

This clear acrylic cot looks great, modern and sleek, but is it practical? As a Daddy to 6 month old Lyric this design caught my eye. It looks to be standard cot type construction, two ends, two sides and a base. The sides have a series of polished routed slots for air circulation, which attach to the base. The two solid pieces the ends. This cot is probably made from 10mm thick clear acrylic. The plus side would be being able to see what your baby’s up to, without having to look over the sides of a cot. It is going to wipe clean easily, will it make baby feel secure? Will you be able to check up on baby, without getting spotted? Will baby settle with all of the distractions in the room in constant full view? I love the design but don’t think this one’s for me or my baby. The other two versions have mixed wood and acrylic together, just leaving the sides made out of acrylic. One uses laser cut patterned panels for the sides, I love the old style legs on this version, it reminds me of an old TV set. The other has routed slats as has the first example. These I would consider using myself, with the wood going all around the outside of the acrylic, framing it on both versions. It would be like watching your kid on TV, what could be better?

Shaun

Laser Technology

Laser technology has come a long way since Flash Gordon’s time, Ming the merciless and his death ray have very little on modern machines. Over the years machines have got safer, smaller and cheaper, making their processes more versatile and accessible. These acrylic tables and tray are fun examples of laser cutting. They show how accurate and neat the cut can be, it would be impossible to achieve the same results using a router, the laser has a very fine cut enabling it to do far more intricate work. The added bonus being that as it cuts through the acrylic, the heat of the laser polishes the edges. The strength of the laser can also be adjusted to engrave or etch into the acrylic, this example of Motorhead’s warpig has been etched on the back of a piece of 15mm thick acrylic, then attached to a piece of 5mm frosted black to show the etching. Any designs, patterns, names or company logos could be incorporated in our furniture designs.

Shaun

Acrylic Helicopter

This perspex helicopter has a fully working rotor, powered by its own solar panel. Made from thin gauge laser cut clear acrylic, which easily clips together without the use of solvent glue. This solar powered helicopter kit is a great demonstration of how efficient modern solar cells are. It is able to fully power up with just the light from a desk lamp. I think it would be even more impressive if it were able to fly. Great fun none the less and educational, it could also be personalised with vinyl graphics and used as a promotional item, a unique desk ornament. I want one!

Shaun

Clearly Modern