Any companies that can fabricate custom acrylic pieces? (custom fan duct wanted)

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Daggah

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I don't have a whole lot of artistic skill or the resources to do anything better so I'm forced to use Paint to create a simple design:

acrylicduct.jpg


Basically, I'd like to have a duct for a 12cm window fan...I'd like to direct air from the side fan so that it's headed in the same direction as the air from the front intake. Anyone know of any companies that could fabricate this kind of thing for me?
 
Look for a local machine shop or a bike builder. I think they can do each side on a waterjet and you can bond them together.
 
You do realize this type of thing will most likely cost $$$$, proably more than it's worth. I think you'd be better off trying to fabricate it yourself out of sheet metal, fiberglass or plexi. It also looks like the vent on our clothes dryer :p

But that is probably the most well made paint illustration I've seen yet :cool:
 
It looks to me like you could buy flat acrylic and basically cut three pieces, top and bottom would be flared, the side would simply be flat, no???
Cut them on a jigsaw buff and glue.
I think the suggestion of a custom bike shop would be a good one, if you dont feel like cutting them yourself.

Contact preformance-pcs.com, they do a ton of custom stuff and are nice folks to deal with.
 
Its best to try yourself. The best route to go would be fiberglass. I don't know if you wanted it to be curved acrylic.. but that would be pretty hard to do yourself if you want it to look like a ferrari hoodscoop or something. Fiberglass would be pretty simple though.

If you take it to a company that makes prototype parts, its going to seriously cost an arm and a leg. I've checked into it before, and for just one component that size, it would be over $1000. These prototype parts companies have to have your exact CAD drawings of it in 3D, the material type, etc. And they really don't like making just one part.

The next best thing would be to check local places as someone already suggested. I don't know of many places that work with bending acrylic into hood scoop type things though. Machine shops or car customization shops might have people experienced with that, but I doubt it. Metal or fiberglass they could definetly do.

If you wanted to do it yourself, it would take some work. I know of one way to do it fairly easy out of acrylic, but its going to be some work. You would need to make a mold of your design out of fiberglass to start with, then get it perfectly smooth. Next, lay your acrylic over the mold, heat it up so the acrylic is really flexible, then vacuum it into the mold. All you would have to do after that is cut out your duct, drill your holes, cut off the extra edges, then file/sand the edges smooth.
 
I honestly think something like this would not be very hard to make with a dremel, some files and a heat gun... you could use super thin acylic to make it even easier... even 1/8 inch acrylic is thicker then this needs to be. The only trouble i could forsee is makign sure everything is flush where it touches the case... but the files should manage that
 
If you had a sheet of acrylic you could do it yourself. Get yourself a small bottle of tetra-cloride to bond the acrylic together (I think thats what we used to use), which will actually break down the properties of the acrylic and bond them together.
 
daggah, your in italy?

best bet, if you cant find someone locally is to get a sheet of plexy. cut one flat piece that will mount to your fan, and then add in 2 sides in a triangle shape, and a flat peice for the outside of the duct. glue them together with acrylic glue. you can get a bottle in a hardware store, or where ever you would purchase acrylic plexy from.
 
Well, thanks for the tips everyone...I wanted acrylic because it would be going on a clear acrylic (LED) fan. I've experimented with working on acrylic before and I'm not confident in my ability to do anything with it. If it's going to be that expensive then I guess I'll just drop it. :/
 
why so elaborate? just make a right triangle pieces and one flat piece instead of those weird curved things. yeah the curved ones look neat, but they'd be inside the case, so you'd be spending more money on just those two special sides than if you just went plain
 
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