ok heres the deal, i was workin on a project log but its been on hold for over a month now due to really big problems, mainly the acrylic. I tried cutting manually with a fine saw, it shattered. I tried cuttin with a dremel, the disc shatted along with the sheet. and i had barely touched the acrylic. I got my neighbour to try cutting it on his bench cutter (not sure its exact name), which he has used for similar things in the past. Same thing again, it shattered. now this is a £40 sheet of acrylic and i'm now rather p***d off. I've managed to get a few small bits cut manually but theres just no way of getting the larger bits for the top and bottom of the case done. Can someone suggest the best place to buy acrylic sheet?, Kustom pc's has it but there largest sheet is a tad 2 small. p.s i got my last massive sheet from homebase... bad idea that was Thanks Scott
I just want to add a complaint / a piece of advice. NEVER WORK WITH UR PC INTERANLS WHEN ITS TURNED ON. I just shorted out a 500V CCFL thingy. the swich, was trying to hide it away and the 2 contacts made contact with the case. shocked me, followed by the computer switchin off instantly. surprised to say the cathode still works but its little CCFL box is dead. I tell u it scared the heck outa me when my pc turned off :/. Was in the process of changing my antec power supply over to a somewhat quieter Akasa 460 watt supply
sgr, what the heck does that have to do with acrylic? i also need good acrylic. i was hoping for 1/4", but i don't know if that's a good idea.
Now, to actually answer the question. From what I learnt at school, it is best to clamp down the acrylic either side of the line of cut onto a piece of wood. Then cut the acrylic, this should allow you to cut without shattering it. Make sure you have the right type of acyrilic too! Never cut (or drill through)acrylic with a gap under it, it will simply shatter! As for PC internals, that is pretty much common sense not to work on it whilst it is on. What has that got to do with acrylic anyway?
Sounds like you need to buy cast acrylic rather than the extruded stuff that homebase sell. You will need to find a local specialist supplier, perhaps even a local signmaker will sell you some. Cell cast acrylic will cut far easier than extruded and shouldn't shatter. Stay away from the DIY stores acrylic!
Hi Kong Guess i must becoming a pest, but i am keen to get started. do you have any videos or cad drawings that may help me on my way to building a 3axis router milling machine. you hae not been here for a while nor does it seem has anyone else.. any help and advise, please.
Also, make sure your using the right kind of blade/bit for cutting/drilling acrylic... or just use lexan/polycarbonate
I detail what tools/blades will or will not work in the guide linked in my signature. Ideal tool: Scrollsaw For cutting sheets to square dimensions: Table Saw with a Plywood blade (200 teeth). If you do not have either of those tools you would be best served by switching to polycarbonate. It's not available affordable in any color except clear though.
warmth! Warm acrylic cuts - cold shatters. If can't be done in warmish room (over 20 degs) - then a hot air gun can be used - carefully.
Strange that never had that problem. I use a jig saw with the plate coted in masking/insulation tape. BTW warm acrylic binds up saws if it get to warm (jamed the blade from my scroll saw in a piece.
yes - hence warm rather than hot. I find best is if acrylic is in warm room for several hours first - jigsaw is variable speed and pendulum. the pendulum action clears the cut from acrylic dust before it melts and reseals the cut. Though it is only needed to speed job up wheras variable speed allows a cut at a slower speed - i find a fine metal blade is good. for a straight cut a power saw does good job. again warm acrylic (nae hot!)
Make sure there is no movement of the material, and that it is secured between two sheets of thin plywood or somethign similar. Its not usually this much difficulty to work with, perhaps its somethign with you;re setup in particular, or that something is non standard about you're acrylic. Try experementing on some small pieces too see what works. Jaz_knos
not knowing the specifcs of your acrylic here's a list of pdf's that will give you advice on pretty much every fabrication operation on acrylic. A lot of time it's a matter of using the wrong cutting blade. that or not clamping the piece correctly, vibration and such will kill acrylic everytime. http://www.cyro.com/Internet/SiteContent.nsf/LiteraturePage2!OpenPage#techsheet I reference this all the time. Oh and does any serious machinist know where I can find feeds and speeds charts for milling and lathing plastics? I got a few hours of tool time on a cnc mill and lathe, but guessing feeds and speeds on them will end up in bad quality cuts
No offense, but this is the most random way to bump a 1.5 year old thread. hehe I've got this book in front of me. It has speeds for all kinds of metals, but not much info on plastics. Then it says that too low a feed will generate excessive heat and cause surface cracks, loss of dimensional accuracy, and poor surface finish while too high a feed rate will produce a rough surface. I've got another reference I'm going to look through a bit later or tomorrow though though when I have the time. Edit: I'm going through the other reference now (Engineered Materials Handbook) and unfortunately I cannot find anything useful. I'll keep looking though.
What? No, acrylic shatters if the blade tries to bite off more material than it can cut through. And if you warm up acrylic it gets very tacky and will stick to the blade, making it even more likely to shatter from induced vibration. You want to keep the piece at or below room temperature and you HAVE TO USE the appropriate blades. Generally I've just used the same speeds recommended for brass. Here's a huge helpful list of speeds and feed rates. Different plastics behave in different ways when it comes to swarf clearing and cooling needs. http://www.boedeker.com/fabtip.htm When lathing plastics you have to use very rounded cutting bits and the easiest way to make sure you're cutting effectively is to listen to the noise it makes. The more annoying the sound produced, the cleaner the finish of your cut will be.
alright that helps somewhat ironically that guide has nearly every sort of plastic accept cast and extruded acrylic, I've already done my manual machining operations, I used a shell mill to face all my sheet stock to the same height +-.001" and now I'm going to CNC mill the ends. The thing is with CNC you don't have any feel of if your pushing the tool to slow or fast, also I'll be using Carbide tools not HSS. Anyways I have enough blanks and extra that I can fool around until I get something acceptable. Then I'm going to write my numbers down, cause everytime I go to machine acrylic I always wonder what the SFPM and chipload are.
Under milling and lathing as long as you keep an ample supply of coolant or compressed air going acrylic and polycarbonate behave about the same. So simply use the same speeds and feed rates that are recommended on that page for polycarbonate.
With respect, I stick with my original answer -- Bear in mind I live in Scotland (where heated workshops are for rich wimps and have experience of cutting the same extruded Acrylic - in an ideal world all sorts of things can be suggested but in this case - the cheapest answer is getting a variable speed jigsaw with fine toothed metal blade. Yes a plastic blade would be best but not usually easily obtainable. And op should check out www.technologysupplies.co.uk They do cast and extruded and all sorts of modding goodies (muscle wire) don't AFAIK do online ordering (really schools suplier) but will take telephone orders. Of course they do a tool that makes a jigsaw obsolete - Laser cutters under 10 grand!
