At Acryfab we can make Lego display cases or display cabinets for your precious collectibles or for all your favorite Lego creations – whether it be your own Lego masterpiece or a Lego model.
A display cabinet usually implies a unit that either sits on the floor or sits on a counter or is hung on a wall. A display cabinet will have doors and shelves. The doors can be lockable. A display cabinet can have a wood or MDF back or base. A cabinet is normally fabricated, ie, the acrylic is cut to size and glued together, no parts are bent. Acrylic Display Cabinets that are to be hung on a wall can be hung in three different ways.The Acrylic Display Cabinet can be screwed to a wall, hung off a split rail or hung off keyholes. Display cabinets are usually made from thicker acrylic, usually 10mm thick, as they need to be stronger to take the weight of the model and the shelves. Doors are usually made from 6mm thick clear acrylic. Acrylic display cases come in a variety of styles, and I shall now explain to you the differences. Firstly, a display case consists of two parts – the case and the base. The case can be either fabricated or bent. Acrylic display cases up to 300mm square are usually made from 3mm thick clear acrylic. Acrylic display case 300m square to 600mm square are made from 4.5mm thick clear acrylic. Larger acrylic display cases are made from 6mm or 10mm thick clear acrylic.
A fabricated case is made from 5 parts – top, 2 side and 2 ends. These five parts are glued together to make the case. The edges are all square, I usually take the edge off the acrylic so that the acrylic is not sharp.A bent case has the front, top and back made from one piece of acrylic. The acrylic is folded at the right place to make the front, top and back. The sides are glued on. Where the acrylic is bent, there is a round edge on the acrylic.
The main difference between a fabricated case and a bent case is that the bent case has round edges on the front and back as seen in the picture below.
The next consideration is the base. The base can be either acrylic or wood. Acrylic can be clear, black or white. A wood base can be MDF or wood.
An acrylic base longer than 1200mm will flex. This can be overcome by screwing the case to the base. For example, when I make a display case for the Lego Titanic, I put 3 screws on both sides to hold the case to the base. The case will not flex and by screwing the base to the case, the base will not flex.
All bases are rebated, a rebated is a grove cut on the four edges of the base. When the case is placed over the rebate, the case will not slide off the base.
The next consideration is whether you want to screw the case to the base. Screwing the case to the base means that the case is not easily removed and your precious Lego or collectible is not handled. This can be done in one of two ways. The case can have a hole drilled in the bottom so that a screw can be screwed into the rebate on the base using a screwdriver, or a thumb screw is used. No tools are required to undo a thumbscrew.
This Lego Technic model of a face shovel sits on a black painted wood base with a 6mm thick acrylic case.
This taxidermied Kiwi is from a historical collection. The owner asked for an acrylic display case to protect the Kiwi.
The wall mounted acrylic display cabinet below has two doors and five shelves displaying a collection of model planes.
The acrylic display cabinet was made to fit a specific place in the clients house.
If you have multiple acrylic display cases they can be stacked on top of each other reducing storage space as in the photograph below
