Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it is
slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200 models
look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard, glass
and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent glued
together for making boxes and such.
Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up edges.
How do these work with acrylic?
Thanks, John
Yeah, I used to do a fair amount of work with acrylic for aquariums and
such. There are acrylic specific table saw blades that are a couple hundred
bucks a pop. Or at least they were about 10 years ago. Another choice for
cutting is a quality plywood blade. You won't get the results of an acrylic
blade, but pretty close. The jointer is great for cleaning up edges prior
to applying Methylene Chloride. Unfortunately it doesn't sound as though
you have the room or funds for these tools, and so it sounds like it'll be
trial and error.
The biggest problem in working with acrylic is melting. With a hand drill
and a hole saw, you can easily seize the drill and wind up with the hole saw
melted into the acrylic sheet. I haven't used hand tools other than drills
on acrylic. One tip when using hole saws is to cut in reverse while
applying significant downward pressure. Takes a little longer to cut
through, but you get a much cleaner result.
Brian.
"jriegle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
> find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it
is
> slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200
models
> look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
> enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
>
> I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard,
glass
> and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
> aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
>
> Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent
glued
> together for making boxes and such.
>
> Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up
edges.
> How do these work with acrylic?
>
> Thanks, John
>
>
I use acrylic a lot in my models, and cut it with a laminate blade in a
contractor saw - an old Delta that I got for free because it needed clean up
and a motor. The blade, a Freud, ran about 80 dollars as I recall. It makes a
decent cut that can be cleaned up fast with sanding blocks. Wet sanding using
wet/dry sandpaper keeps the dust down and the paper from clogging. If you use
the super fine papers - from 600 down to 2000 grit, available at automotive
paint supplies, you can get a glossy, clear finish that only needs a bit of
rubbing with polishing compound.
Routing also works with acrylic, cut creates a lot of dust. Slower speed
maching operations, like using a flycutter on a milling machine work very well
with acrylic. I use a stream of air from my compressor to help cool that bit
and keep the area clear.
One thing you don't want to do is aggressively feed the acrylic into a sander.
Even if it doesn't melt you will see some stress cracks develop, sometimes
after a considerable interval (days)
Hope this helps
Kurt
Kurt Greiner
SeaPhoto Maritime Photography ...delete "net" to reply
http://www.warshipphotos.com - now taking online payments via Paypal
Learn about large scale r/c model warships-
Warship Models Underway http://www.warshipmodelsunderway.com
I cut the stuff regularly, see photo link:
http://www.patwarner.com/images/fig20b.jpg
In my view, some hands-on show & tell would may be required to
understand the material. Sawing, routing, drilling, and finishing are
similar to woodworking but there are technique sensitivities.
Nonetheless, if your skills in woodworking are good on wood they can
be transferred to arcylic. I would ace out all practices on wood
first.
It can be jointed as you suggest, but not planed. HSS will not last
long in AC, expect to use carbide except for bandsawing and drilling.
********************************************************
> Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
> find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it is
> slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200 models
> look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
> enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
>
> I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard, glass
> and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
> aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
>
> Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent glued
> together for making boxes and such.
>
> Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up edges.
> How do these work with acrylic?
>
> Thanks, John
i work in a shop that uses plexi alot we have a blade in the 60$ range
about 80 teeth on 10'' blade and sand the edges then use gas and
oxygen to polish edges,takes a little practice to get use to the flame
and all but makes a great finish
On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 22:18:24 -0400, Ray Mandeville
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Have done quite a bit of work with Plexiglas. Always use a table saw
>with carbide tipped blade as well as a router with carbide. Very good
>results. I would often butt join the resulting joints and easily weld
>with methaline chloride solvent.
>
>jriegle wrote:
>> Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
>> find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it is
>> slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200 models
>> look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
>> enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
>>
>> I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard, glass
>> and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
>> aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
>>
>> Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent glued
>> together for making boxes and such.
>>
>> Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up edges.
>> How do these work with acrylic?
>>
>> Thanks, John
>>
>>
We used to do a good bit of work with plexiglas and abs plastic at a
former job of mine. We would just use a regular carbide blade with a
zero clearance insert in a table saw. If you have the saw set up
well, then not too many marks on the surface, just a cloudy
appearance. Then we used a polishing compound with a pneu. polisher.
Suppose there is an electric equivilent tool, but not certain.
Results were perfectly clear edges for display units or speaker boxes.
jeff
> jriegle wrote:
> > Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
> > find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it is
> > slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200 models
> > look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
> > enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
> >
> > I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard, glass
> > and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
> > aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
> >
> > Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent glued
> > together for making boxes and such.
> >
> > Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up edges.
> > How do these work with acrylic?
> >
> > Thanks, John
> >
> >
Have done quite a bit of work with Plexiglas. Always use a table saw
with carbide tipped blade as well as a router with carbide. Very good
results. I would often butt join the resulting joints and easily weld
with methaline chloride solvent.
jriegle wrote:
> Does anyone here work with acrylic (Plexiglas, Lucite...)? I'm trying to
> find a better way of cutting and finishing. I score and snap now, but it is
> slow and tedious. I looked at several table saws, but the under $200 models
> look poorly made, the table is too small and the fence doesn't move far
> enough for wide cuts. (Room and costs are a limitation.)
>
> I also looked at a Fletcher wall mounted machine. It can cut matboard, glass
> and plastic and will break out the plastic right in the machine. These are
> aimed at picture framing businesses and are well north of $1,000.
>
> Cuts must be clean and accurate if the pieces are going to be solvent glued
> together for making boxes and such.
>
> Finally, I was wondering about electric hand planers for cleaning up edges.
> How do these work with acrylic?
>
> Thanks, John
>
>