I got some Lucite acrylic here and I want to know what are some possible ways to make the edges watertight and also, are there any tricks involved when cutting edges? because i have tried the scoring method, a jigsaw and a hand saw, but none of those methods produce a straight enough edge for me to glue (using methylene chloride) one more thing, when i glue to piece together, i notice there tend to have some stress cracks near the glued sections what are some ways to avoid them? thanks in advance
dude just pencil a line and then cut it. later on you can just file it flat as u like and you wont get stress cracks if they is no stress on the corners. another alternative is to just heat and bend a corner.
If you can buy a belt sander it's pretty expensive but you'll always use it afterwards and it's the thing i use to get my edges clear , so i guess it'll do for what you want to do
I've worked in the glass industry and scoring by far is the easiest method for cutting plex, acylic, lucite what have you. The secret is to score the same line atleast 1/4 of the way through then bring the piece to the edge of the table/work bench/deck you get it, then snap. You may end up with a slight bevel which can be taken care of with a sanding block or the belt sander previously mentioned. Hope this helps. Remember more scoring=good/less scoring=bad
How do you get the scoring deep enough? For a 1/4" sheet it would have to be 1/16" deep. I never got there, even with a special tool that was advertised as "perfect" for this purpose. If I pushed hard to get it deep enough on the first pass the knife would stick. If I pushed less and tried several passes the knife would never end up in the same groove. Only very thin material like 0.088" worked. Any tricks to cut the thicker stuff?
Could not agree more! You can pick up cheap belt sanders though! Ten just use it to finish any rough lines created with a jigsaw
I have been using a lot of plexi, acrylic tubes and rods. I usually don't have very much money for modding and getting tools for modding. I have found a lot of ways to get stuff for very cheap. The best bonding stuff I have ever seen is this plastic weld. It is water thin and the joints just suck it up. You apply it with a serenge. http://www.rplastics.com/weldon4.html Use this stuff to remove sratches http://www.rplastics.com/novuspolish.html Now when it comes to cutting plexi I have been using a jigsaw. It works great. You will just need a fine toothed blade (21 tooth per inch) if you use a standard jigsaw blade. I found a plastics company in town and I got a plastics blade which is much nicer cause it is very thin. When it comes to cutting arylic tubes and rods you will need a hacksaw and a miter box or a miter saw. You can pick up a plastic miter box for under $10 if you already have a hacksaw. You will need to get a fine tooth blade one way or another. A half decent miter saw will run $35-50 but is much better. Also if your acrylic is bare (no paper attached) use masking tape on both side of the cut. Helps prevent chipping. Here is the entire directory of stuff http://www.rplastics.com/plac.html Hope this helps
We used a straight edge to guide us and left the straight edge on the piece until we were ready to snap it. If you do this you can just use the straight edge each time to score the same line. Hope this helps
If after you have glued the plexi/acrylic/lucite, it is not water tight, you should be able to use silicone or some other type of sealant for, well, sealing.
