How to make an acrylic tablet stand

Making a tablet holder from acrylic is quick and easy to do and is also very handy, especially if you regularly get a cramp in your neck and arms from peering at your tablet. All you need is an acrylic sheet, two slats, a pair of glue clamps and a paint burner. Fifteen minutes of work, and you have years of pleasure!

Choose the right basic material: cast acrylic

You can buy acrylic sheet at many DIY stores, but the type sold there is less suitable for this tablet holder. The acrylic that we are going to use to make the acrylic tablet stand should be cast acrylic as the holder will be bent. The sheet thickness of 3 millimetres is thick enough and it is cut to size for free by us. You can also choose your acrylic in a nice colour!

The dimensions are determined by the size of your tablet. As a rule you keep the following: 2 * height + 5 centimetres, width + 3 centimetres. An example: if your tablet is 30 centimetres high and 20 centimetres wide, order an acrylic sheet of 65 * 23 centimetres.

Bending acrylic: simple as that!

Acrylic is supplied with a protective film on both sides. You can leave this foil on while bending, and you can also mark the fold lines on it. Mark off the bottom fold line, the point where your tablet meets the bottom, at 3 centimetres from the bottom edge. The second fold line is 30 centimetres higher, i.e. 33 centimetres from the bottom edge. If you have a larger or smaller tablet, then the distance is correspondingly larger or smaller, that goes without saying.

Now place wooden slats under and above the fold line, making sure that they run exactly parallel to the fold line. Keep the slats in place with a pair of glue clamps. Now, you are going to heat the folding line with the paint burner / hot air gun. Set the temperature to ‘medium’ and set the blower to ‘high’. Hold the hot air gun 10 centimetres from the acrylic and gently move it from left to right over the folding line. Occasionally try to bend the acrylic, if the material is flexible enough, bend it up 90 degrees. Then switch off the hot air gun and hold the bent part for about 1 minute. The acrylic then becomes hard again and the fold is fixed.

Heat and bend the second fold line in the same way, with the main difference being that this fold will be at a much sharper angle. Therefore, heat and bend this folding line first to a right angle. Next, heat the folding line for a second time and bend the tablet stand to the desired angle. Then hold it in this position for two minutes until the acrylic has cooled down. Just remove the protective film and your tablet holder is ready!