Cutting Acrylic

[Warren G]

I just got a piece of acrylic window for my mod from Home Depot today. I wanna cut out some holes to mount fans on. Whats the best tools/way to cut out the hole?

[Borgy]

Hi
Is it acrylic or plexi glass the not the same
plexi is a bit harder to cut without cracking

I use a jigsaw for both with a fine tooth blade
22 per inch
also if ya have some srap thin board (wood,ply,MDF) clamp that to the plexi/acrylic and cut both the board n plexi/ acrylic where ya gonna cut it helps to stop it splitting and just take it stedy
oh and have the board on top cos the saw dose the work on the up stroke
Good Luck
Borgy

[Warren G]

hmm its acrylic but i got it in the plexi glass section. would a dremel work? also, if i wanted to cut holes, can i use a drill? (and put on the circle saw)

[BinarySuperman]

save yourself all the worrying about cracking it and get your self some Lexan, i tried my hardest to crack it and still cant it, its like rubber glass.

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by BinarySuperman
save yourself all the worrying about cracking it and get your self some Lexan, i tried my hardest to crack it and still cant it, its like rubber glass.

I second that. I've had nothing but crap from anything but Lexan. Trouble with generic plexy, all the way up to Lucite.

For a hole, if you've got the money, nothing beats a hole saw. NOTHING. Hole saw bell (3" for 80mm hole) - ~$20. Hole saw arbor - ~$20. ~$40 is alot for one size hole, but if you want to make 120mm holes too, you can buy just a 120mm (4.75") bell for ~$20 more and use the same arbor.

[badvector]

I'll third that :D

I use lexan as well. It makes a huge difference when cutting or drilling. I also use what's been stated so far. A circle cutter for holes and a jigsaw with a fine blade for straight/curved cuts. If all you have is a dremel, it will work, but the lexan will melt itself back together from the heat generated. You may have to cut and clean in small steps. The edges may also require some touch up with a flapper wheel or buffer.

[Frodo Baggins]

I third....oops

nah, I don't, sorry boys but I have to disagree. I used acryllic plastic, and I've had ZERO problems using a dremel with 24 TPI (teeth per inch) It was going through the acryllic like a hot knife through butter, with the smoothest cut possible too. but when you almost finish a cut,t he acryllic will start to shake alot. thats when you need to either clamp it down, or get someone to help you cut it.

Yes, a dremel will work, but I don't reccomend it, You'll kill alot of cuitting wheels, when you can do the job with a jigsaw in a few seconds

[Element-Xero]

i use acryllic cuz its cheaper, and it really doesn't crack THAT easily, it takes some negligence. I just use a dremel cutting wheel on medium speed to cut it. Cuts through like butter.

[shauns]

Lucite has NEVER broke on me never cracked, and i used a dremel to cut it =P

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by shauns
Lucite has NEVER broke on me never cracked, and i used a dremel to cut it =P

A Dremel isn't a jigsaw. =\

I can be rough as heck with Lexan, I've never had a sheet break on me. I've come at a sheet quickly with a jigsaw, so quickly the bit popped out, but the Lexan remained intact.

Conversly, the only two times I tried cutting generic plexi with a jigsaw, it shattered instantly, never even got a chance to cut, it just blew up on impact.

The Lucite was better, at least I could cut it. But when I was half way through with the cut, it split accross to the other side, ruining the piece.

[ssjwizard]

well i will admit lexan is better its not quite as scratch resistant but it has hell of impact resistance. acrylic can be done with a bit of care. i have managed to split/crack every acrylic window ive tried to cut BUT the were all being cut at weird angles and i didnt break it till right neer the end using a fine tooth metal cutting blade in my jigsaw at low speed. cut it on something and you will be fine. if you have a ban saw it isnt to hard. and i cut acrylic on my table saw all the time without any trouble.(my resiviors and such)

[methalorange]

Originally posted by shauns
Lucite has NEVER broke on me never cracked, and i used a dremel to cut it =P

i used lucite too ... no problems at all .. thoguht the cut was smooth
$10 canadian for a sheet a bit bigger than a full tower

[Captain Slug]

PlexiGlass is an inaccurate term and 90% of the time refers to thicker grades of acrylic.

Acrylic is made for window treatments where image clarity is more important than impact resistance. It's also used where abrasion resistance is very import, such as display cases. Therefore it is used for green houses and some types of triple layer energy efficient windows. It's not that great for tooling simply because it melts easily (at which time it may give of toxic fumes, I know because it gave me the worst headache I've ever had).

The same easily meltable properly allows it to be thermally warped at lower temperatures than polycarbonate. But this should be attempted outside of a professional level or controlled circumstances because it is EXTREMELY dangerous to heat acrylic.

Lexan (Polycarbonate) is made for impact resistance but is much easier to tool because of it's low abrasion resistance. I highly prefer it because it won't give me brain damage if I accidentally melt it while cutting. It flexes without cracking too.


As far are cutting, abrasive discs will melt either material unless ou use the lowest speed possible.
I recommend using a jigsaw and a metal-smooth cut blade to get the best edges on your cuts. And you have to go as slow as you can to avoid melting the two piece back together. BUT LEAVE THE STATIC PAPER ON. Both materials can get scratched from tooling so the protective sheeting needs to do it's job.

McMaster.com (http://www.mcmaster.com) sells Acrylic and Lexan in a variety of shapes, thicknesses, sizes, colors and tints for comparably good prices. (as versus Home Depot or Lowes which only stock building code standard sized sheets at 1/8" thickness).