anyone familiar with using polycarbonate or tempered glass

anyone that has used these materials how easy is it to drill or cut these materials?

i believe for the glass i will need to use a drill that is abrasive to grind a hole it.

Im not sure about the polycarbonate.

im putting a window in my current case and it made me think about making a case out of tempered glass or maybe polycarbonate.

Poly is easy if you go slow using a Brad point bit. If you dont, it'll heat up and the hole will look like crap

As for tempered glass, don't even try it.

Definitely polycarbonate over glass.
As bob said, go slow with it, that'll make the hole very clean.

thankyou for your advice. Poly it is i guess.

I was thinking i could do tempered if i used an abrasive cutter. too bad as it would have looked best

It should look the same? Don't use lexan as it scratches Hella easy. Polished poly should look much the same as glass.

Can't speak to working with glass, however, I've worked plastic every which way.

Start here:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=90412


Polycarbonate--generally stronger and easier to work, but as mentioned surface scratches easily.

Acrylic--a little weaker, especially in thinner sheets and lower melting temperatures.


When drilling holes, I've encountered several issues to be aware of:

1) Drill point walking. If not using very sharp bits (ie plastic drill bits), the point tends to walk away from your mark as the surface is very hard and smooth. Fix--be careful.

2) Plastic melting. The bit can heat up so much that the plastic melts while drilling it, resulting in crappy gummy holes. Fix--use higher quality acrylic, plastic drill bits, or keep things cool (spritz bottle of water). Shouldn't be a problem with polycarbonate.

3) Drill bit pull thru. If you are not using plastic drill bits, as your drill bit exits the far side of the material, it will suddenly pull the plastic piece towards the drill. If you are drilling a thin piece, near an edge, this will often cause the plastic to fracture from the hole edge. Fix--secure your plastic piece well, or use plastic drill bits.


Navig

thanks. i found that my local Farm & fleet stocks a selection of lexan

DONT use lexan... it scratches super easy and looks like **** after a short amount of time. Use acrylic.

You can get acrylic from home Depot or lowes pretty cheap.

You can use a small drill just to make a point in the plastic so a larger drill will not walk when you drill.

You don't need to rev up the drill to max speed, try a medium speed.

Might want to practice on a scrap piece to see if you get the results you are looking for.