Fix Warped Plexi

paulliadis

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I was gonna throw this off a roof, but I'm scared of heights so I figured I'd fix it.

Anyhow, I have a Dk Junior cpo that has the usual cig burns near the 1-player 2-player buttons. I've been able to sand away the burn marks pretty well, but the plexi is bent in that area. Does anybody know of a way to straighten this out?

See the attached photos.

Thanks in advance,
Paul
 

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Thanks for the link. I don't have the stones to try the oven method. Might try the two pieces of glass method, though. Not a lot of sun here in Pa right now. Might have to find a different source of heat.
 
easiest and most reliable method is the oven method.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees, put a piece of 3/4 inch MDF board in the oven AFTER preheating that is bigger than the plastic you want to flatten.

Put the plastic on TOP of the mdf and turn on the oven light, you can pretty much watch the plastic flatten. It will take a few minutes at only 250 degrees, very safe and easy to control. You can reach in and pick the plastic up to see how pliable it's gotten, when you can bend it slowly it's ready.. let it stay on the wood pull the whole thing out of the oven and drop a piece of 1/4 inch thick glass right on top of the plastic. (i have a bookshelf that has a piece of perfect glass for this that I use). Will only take about 30 seconds to cool and you're all done. The heat never gets hot enough to get scary or risk the plastic burning/melting.
 
easiest and most reliable method is the oven method.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees, put a piece of 3/4 inch MDF board in the oven AFTER preheating that is bigger than the plastic you want to flatten.

Put the plastic on TOP of the mdf and turn on the oven light, you can pretty much watch the plastic flatten. It will take a few minutes at only 250 degrees, very safe and easy to control. You can reach in and pick the plastic up to see how pliable it's gotten, when you can bend it slowly it's ready.. let it stay on the wood pull the whole thing out of the oven and drop a piece of 1/4 inch thick glass right on top of the plastic. (i have a bookshelf that has a piece of perfect glass for this that I use). Will only take about 30 seconds to cool and you're all done. The heat never gets hot enough to get scary or risk the plastic burning/melting.

Is there any potential danger to the graphics? This worries me more than anything.
 
Is there any potential danger to the graphics? This worries me more than anything.

You must bake it with the side with no graphics touching the cookie sheet, MDF, whatever. You don't want the side with the ink touching anything in the oven. And yeah, the artwork is what I worried about it. You just have to get it soft enough, then put it between 2 sheets of paper and stack books on it
 
joeycuda -

So I don't need any glass to set on top of it? Just heat it until it starts to become malleable, then take it out of the oven, put paper on each side, and put books on top of that?

Maybe, just maybe, I'll give this a try.
 
I'm combing through the rec.games.pinball boards now. One dude left his plastic in the oven for two HOURS!

The oven just seems too much like shrinky dinks to me.

If I had a heat gun, that's probably the method I'd use. I've seen some mention of using an iron. I might try that too.
 
A heat gun is 10000% more dangerous to your plastics than the oven method. You can't control the heat with the gun anywhere close to as well as the oven, a couple seconds too long and you've toasted a spot.

Ink up, ink down the ink will be fine. Heating it up doesn't make it soft again, it's dry, been dry for many years. Books and paper work OK, but remember both of those things are usually textured. I use glass because there is no texture so there's no chance of it transferring to the surface of the plastic as it hardens again. It really is silly simple to do this, you can literally watch the plastic flatten and when it does take it out of the oven.
 
If you are concerned about the plastic sticking, go to the grocery store and buy some Reynolds Release aluminum foil. It has a release agent on one side of the foil. You put the foil on top of the cookie sheet or the MDF so the plastic will not stick. Plus you can throw the foil away and it doesn't touch any of your wife's cookware, so she can't complain. :)

ken
 
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