cutting acrilic

[Guest bill33]

im plaining on making a cpr2 skimmer   and i was wondering what you use to cut acrilic  the guy at my hardware store said a fine teeth jigsaw blade will work  and it didnt and i was going really slow to.   so what do you do to cut acrilic

[Sph2sail]

For a 10" blade saw, use a 42 tooth (or so) carbide tip blade.  No melting, a clean cut.

 

These plastics blades (fine cut, lots of teeth, zero kerf) are a waste, IMHO.  They tend to melt the acrylic rather than cut it.

 

A jigsaw is likely not a reasonable tool to use.  You can't keep it straight enough to have a glueable edge.  Recommend a chop saw, table saw solution instead.

 

For holes, use SHARP spade bits instead of high speed metal bits.  A drill press is best.  hand holding with might work.

 

s

[Guest bill33]

will the 42tooth 10inch   circular saw blade crack thin acrilic cause the acrilic im working with is pretty thin

[xeon]

Bill,

The "professionally" recommended blade type is a 10" 80 tooth triple-chip carbide tipped blade.  One major reason for using a carbide tipped blade is for longer life of the blade.  The triple-chip keeps chips out of the way by design.  I use a plastics blade for my projects and it works fine.  It does dull, but at less than $10 is easy enough to replace.  If you use a plastics blade... you want to use a new one.  For 1/8", it would cut it like butter.      

 

Getting a good cut out of acrylic is a combination of a few things.  One you need a sharp blade with lots of even teeth.  The next thing is you need to hold the material firmly while you cut.  If it is flopping around, you will have melts, chips, and so forth.  The next thing is to make sure you have a good feed rate.  With a new sharp blade, you should be able to feed it through quickly.  You don't want to be herky jerky here as a uneven feed rate may very well give you a bad cut.  Too slow and you will have melts.  Personally, I've never been able  to feed so fast it had negative results.  Finally, the heighth of the blade is important.  You want to have the blade sticking up a 1/4" or so above the material.  Finally you want to make sure your cuts are square.  Fitting acrylic is pretty precise, but not impossible.

[Guest bill33]

thanks alot

[geofloors]

Sometimes it's easier to use a router and a straight edge to cut sheet acrylic. Gives you a perfect edge for glueing.

 

 

George

[Guest bill33]

thanks

[pez]

If you are cutting holes, you want to use a real hole cutting blade.  If I'm interpreting what Steve is recommending correctly, there is a pretty good probability the spade bit will shatter the acrylic when it punches through the other side.  It may work on flat acrylic, but definitely not a tube.

 

-Tom