How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (2024)

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat

Did you know you can mold acrylic with heat? That might not be of that much of a shock to you, but how about the fact that you can do it with a heat gun or even your own oven? Yep! Acrylic starts to soften at only 320F, which means you can heat it in your oven or with a heat gun and mold it into various shapes! Naturally I had to play around with this technique and my Glowforge. So I cut out a few scalloped pieces and got to work turning them into jewelry dishes, fruit bowls, and mini planters! So many possibilities!

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (1)

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (2)

Materials to make heat formed acrylic bowls:

  • Cut Acrylic in your desired shapes (I used a scallop shape)
  • Heat gun or oven
  • Heat proof bowl (something that won’t crack when it gets hot)
  • Pot holder
  • Gold paint pen for rim (optional)

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (3)

Instructions

I tried my hand at a few small bowls using acrylic cut to about 6″ in diameter, and it worked great with the heat gun. This larger piece, althrough photographed with the heat gun, required a little oven action to get uniformly hot and pliable.

Begin by placing your acrylic piece over a bowl that you want to use as your mold. Then either slowly run your heat gun over the surface for a few minutes until it starts to heat up and become pliable. You will just need to test it every few minutes to see if it has heated up enough by pressing down on the acrylic using the pot holder (don’t burn yourself!).

For the larger acrylic piece, place the bowl and acrylic in the oven and heat for 5-10 minutes. Check every few minutes and remove when it starts to get soft. Once the acrylic is pliable, remove the bowl from the oven. Then use the pot holder to press down into the center of the acrylic to mold it into the bowl shape.

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (4)

You may need to stick it back in the oven to heat again if you aren’t able to fully mold it in one pass. As the acrylic will harden again as it cools. Once you have it molded to your liking, remove the acrylic from the bowl. You can now paint the rim gold. Another option (as I did on this clear bowl) is to paint the back with acrylic paint.

The Results

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (5)

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (6)

It’s almost like adult shrinky dinks! Now I am trying to think up other ways I can mold the acrylic! Maybe a cake server? Give me all your ideas for how you would mold acrylic with heat!

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (7)
How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life (2024)

FAQs

How to Mold Acrylic With Heat - A Kailo Chic Life? ›

For the larger acrylic piece, place the bowl and acrylic in the oven and heat for 5-10 minutes. Check every few minutes and remove when it starts to get soft. Once the acrylic is pliable, remove the bowl from the oven. Then use the pot holder to press down into the center of the acrylic to mold it into the bowl shape.

How do you heat and mold acrylic? ›

If you're using a heat gun, you'll want to place your sheet over the mold, like your bowl or mug, and then slowly heat up the sheet by running it slowly over the surface. You need to do this for a couple of minutes. Once the sheet temperature reaches 320F, it will become malleable and ready for molding.

What temperature do you mold acrylic? ›

The forming range for acrylic sheet is 290-320ºF (142-160ºC). Even temperature distribution throughout the sheet's thickness is recommended. Before forming, the sheet's temperature must be higher than the desired temperature to allow for cooling that will occur prior to the start of forming.

How to mold acrylic with an oven? ›

When oven is at 300, place the plastic on a piece of aluminum foil on the baking sheet. Set timer. Time varies depending on thickness of the plastic. I heard 15 minutes for each 1/43 thickness was the rule of thumb.

Can plexiglass be heated and molded? ›

PLEXIGLAS® can be formed into almost any shape, all it needs is some heat. Discover the various methods for easy thermoforming (also known as “bending”) of acrylic sheet.

What happens when you heat acrylic? ›

A: While acrylic softens at higher temperatures, it does not actually melt until it reaches 320 °F (160 °C). Therefore, normal household use does not risk melting acrylic. Hot stovetop items should only be placed on an acrylic tabletop surface using a protective trivet or other padding, preferably with rubber cushions.

What is used to mold acrylic? ›

Acrylic is heated to a liquid, then injected into a custom mold with a high pressure injection tool.

Does acrylic set faster in heat or cold? ›

Every degree of variance from that constant will influence curing times. The colder you stray from that steady and reliable point, the slower the reaction will be; on the other hand, the warmer your products are the quicker they will cure.

Does acrylic set faster in heat? ›

In the summer, acrylic tends to set up much faster. A great option here is to use slower setting powders to offset the effects of the temperature. If at all possible, invest in temperature control tools, such as a heater or air conditioning, to maintain a consistent temperature in your workspace.

Is acrylic easy to mold? ›

Excellent resistance to most of the aqueous solutions. The above factors make it very easy for you to mold acrylic into any form.

Can I bake acrylic? ›

There are two types of curing methods that can be used with FolkArt Enamels and the FolkArt Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paints, baking and air drying. Allow painted item to dry for 1 hour to be sure all layers of paint have dried. Place project in a cool oven. Set oven temperature to 350ºF and bake for 30 minutes.

Is an acrylic oven safe? ›

You can bake fully dried acrylic paint in the oven safely. You will achieve so called Baked finish, which is the effect of baking acrylic paint at temperatures higher than 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

What temperature does acrylic soften? ›

Formability Acrylic sheet will soften gradually as the temperature is increased above 210°F (99°C). At temperatures from 340°F to 380°F (171°C to 193°C), it becomes soft and pliable and can be formed into almost any shape using inexpensive molds.

Can you mold plastic with heat? ›

Process heat molding

Thermoplastics can be heated up until they soften enough for you to reshape them. To ensure that the material is sufficiently flexible for the forming process, hot air is used to heat up either the entire component or just certain parts of it.

Can acrylic be molded? ›

Acrylic can be easily molded into different shapes and sizes, meaning it can be an economic substitute for other types of hard plastic. The professional molding experts at Retlaw Industries can use acrylic material for your specific molded plastic part.

Can you mold acrylic plastic? ›

At times, you may desire to form complex shapes using an acrylic. In such a case you will have to mold the acrylic. Acrylic injection molding is, therefore, the process of shaping acrylics by injecting hot materials into a mold.

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