Cutting Lexan

[Veselin Kolev]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

Acrylic is another name for Plexiglas.*shivers* But I was thinking to get good cuts that are all uniform. But I recently found out that www.pololu.com does laser cutting EXTREMELY cheap so I am going to look into that.

Just a note... acrylic is the real name for Plexiglass. Just like polycarbonate is the same thing as Lexan. These are just registered names of the same plastic.

But yea. Laser cutting works fine, watercutting is pretty slick too.

I suggest trying EDM too. You'll get interesting results

[Tim Delles]

Another great way to cut Lexan is to use either an exact-o knife or a knife that is specially made to cut lexan (Normally you can buy one of these at any local hardware store or atleast one that sells lexan.)

Acrylic as has been crakes very easily. To much vibrations or to much heat when cutting it can cause it to deform. The best way to cut acrylic is to cut it with a hack saw if it is that firm, if its not then i have no idea (I normally break acrylic cause i really have never found a way to cut it good).

[inphiniti]

Biting it cuts it quite nicely; unless you can tear it with your bare hands. Note that this method isn't as accurate, but it demonstrates how hard-core you are.

No jk. A table-saw works nicely if you do it slow enough.

[Dick Linn]

There are inexpensive plastic cutters available, and it would be trivial to make one if you have a grinder or Dremel tool. Here's a picture, though not close up: http://www.pictureframes.com/html/plasticcutter.html and another http://www.dickblick.com/zz574/77/

I've seen them for a couple of bucks on occasion. It's basically a knife blade with a bevel at the tip that is dragged so that it machines out a small curl of plastic as you go. Cut about 1/16" deep and then you just bend the pieces and they break at the line.

[Tim Delles]

Originally Posted by Dick Linn

I've seen them for a couple of bucks on occasion. It's basically a knife blade with a bevel at the tip that is dragged so that it machines out a small curl of plastic as you go. Cut about 1/16" deep and then you just bend the pieces and they break at the line.

Just so you know you should really cut deeper than 1/16". with 1/16" cut myself and other students on our team have found that it is still extermely hard to break the lexan (plus sometimes it doesn't break on the line exactly and you could end with a jagged side) I would recommend going atleast half the distance if not more when cutting it with the knife.

[Dick Linn]

Sorry, I was thinking of acrylic and the directions I read recently on one of those cutters. Polycarb is indeed tougher. That I would not hesitate to cut with most any sharp sawblade, just don't feed it too fast or hard. And it doesn't like to be fed through a very fine jigsaw...it tends to heat up and weld itself back together. Very annoying!

[eshteyn]

When is comes to lexan the standard blade thatc omes with the table saw is perfectly fine to use however make sure you compensate for the 1/8th inch cutting path is creates. For acrylic i have found that a diamond blade does a pretty good job, however just to be safe you have to put tape on the acrylic while you are cutting it, 3M painters tape is teh best for this. Again when cuttign with the diamond blae make sure your compensate 1/8th of an inch for the cuttign path

[ChuckDickerson]

I just ran across this Acrylic Sheet Fabrication Manual that has a lot of good info on cutting and machining Plexiglas/Acrylic.

[Éowyn]

I know that a lot of teams may not have this luxury, but just about all our lexan was laser-cut.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by Éowyn

I know that a lot of teams may not have this luxury, but just about all our lexan was laser-cut.

The size of the pieces you are cutting is limited by the size of the bed. If you were cutting a piece over three feet long you would have trouble. But I must agree, for small pieces or small parts you can't beat the 0.03" wide cutting path. Lucky guys!!!