Since I am waiting on materials to continue another project, I decided to make a quick stand to keep my new glass dip pen safe on my desk. I made a form with layers of Thick Draftboard to heat bend the green glass acrylic into the desired shape, and assembled it with M3 bolts.
2-minute build video:
More on my blog:
This looks really cool! Nice job!!
Wow! Loved the video!!
Thank you so much for posting the video. Seeing the draftboard form and heat gun in action was very illuminating. Great work!
Oooo, I think bent acrylic projects are awesome! We need more!
@Xabbess would love this.
@cynd11 is exactly right. I do love this. The design is stunning. Very modern, very functional, and very beautiful.
It’s got slightly high potential energy. How stable is it?
This turned out amazing!!
Hmm … I can see several ways to interpret this question.
I can bat it around on the desk like a cat would and it does not wobble or fall over at all, just slides around. It holds the glass pen pretty firmly in a way that it doesn’t rattle or jiggle at all, even sliding it around somewhat aggressively (only so far I am going to take testing that). So, I am fairly confident it will keep my pen safe under most normal conditions.
Will it shatter if dropped on the floor? There I am less confident.
My other project with the green glass acrylic did not stand up to being karate chopped off the wall (newer headset has different geometry and I need to make a new one now anyway). It did last through several years of regular abuse before that, though.
My biggest concern is the nuts remaining secured in the base piece. Those seem pretty solidly in place. Even before I added the CA glue, they were so firmly press-fit I could not push them back out (in either direction) with a metal pick. I may still fill the holes from the bottom with either UV resin or more CA glue, just to be sure.
It probably won’t spontaneously combust, but would likely make a pretty intense fire if properly set alight.
That’s chemical energy 
I just meant it’s upright and seems like it might break if it tips over. If it survives the Cat Simulator 3000tm then it’s probably good to go!
I laughed so hard reading your response. Except I’m standing outside on a busy street waiting for a ride. So I probably look pretty crazy.
I really like the design and the choice of securing screws instead of Weld-on which always has the potential to overspread and leave unsightly residue. Did you consider using heat-set inserts instead of gluing nuts in the base? Since the hole for them is slightly undersized and the plastic is melted around them, they are incredibly difficult to break out of the piece.
I have worked with Weld-on enough to be wary of the unsightly residue. There is also some bonding-surface-to-likely-leverage thing I can’t quite quantify where I have had some fragile connections.
I am aware of heat set inserts, but hadn’t thought of them since I don’t have any on-hand. I just ordered some to remedy that, and will give them a go. Thanks!
Very elegant!
Love the idea of the form to bend over the acrylic with. I’ve done a bit of acrylic bending, and this looked very smooth.
Oooh, fancy and bendy. Great video and results.
Really nice job and I have serious dip pen envy!
That is a great stand! And a beautiful pen! Enjoyed the video too. Love the thought of making the forms to form the acrylic. Much better than the branch I used to form my backscratchers! 
That is amazing!!! I cannot get my cutter to get through the thick acrylic all the way. What are your settings?
Acrylic is standardized across the industry, so unless you’re cutting something when metallic flakes the proofgrade settings will work.
If they don’t either your lenses/mirrors need cleaning, or there’s something wrong and you should be taking to support.
Thanks!
@deirdrebeth has you covered. I used Glowforge’s default Proofgrade settings for Green Glass Acrylic.
