Can i route plexiglass

Make sure the bit is solid carbide and made for Acrylic. Check with your tooling vendor for the best selection. If this job can be done in one pass at 32, rpm, polishing will probably not be necessary, depending on the quality you are trying to achieve. Unfortunately, most spindles have rpm limits of 18, or 24, Therefore, polishing will be necessary. Because of its thermal stability, flame polishing is a bit challenging with this Acrylic. The best method is to use a polishing bit to finish the job at the router.

The polishing tool path needs to be set at 16, to 18, rpm. Again, check with your tooling vendor for the best settings and polishing bits. The polishing bit should cut into the material. You also need to overlap the tool by 1mm.

The best feed rate for Acrylic is anywhere between 75 and inches per minute. This depends on the diameter of the bit to prevent it from breaking. Again, because of its thermal stability, cast Acrylic is less likely to melt, even at slower speeds, like extruded Acrylic has a tendency to do.

Thanks guys, much appreciated! One other thing I don't think the blade is carbide tipped Yes it is, it makes a big difference. Steel router bits are made for wood, plexiglass is much harder and will ruin a steel bit in no time. A carbide bit is probably 4 times the price. I built a lot of my furnature including my bed from plexiglass and carbide bits make a nice smooth cut.

I dunno, I'd need to see the set-up before drawing any real conclusions. I'll commonly take off far more than that, but I'm also using much bigger cutters 1. Off hand, I'd say your router bit itself is too small. If you have a larger diameter cutter - might help. If you could post a pic of your set-up plus the finished product, it would be helpful.

Hey Acrylics! You are correct!!! I've tried 3 bits this morning The wider the bit the better edge you get. Can I do this on a table mounted router or do I have to use the router by hand. Should I remove the fence on my table router and move my overflow box by hand around the bearing of the bit?

What would be the best method to do this? I really don't want to scrap my box!! Any pictures would be appreciated!! Originally Posted by yoki Great tip!! I didn't even think about that! Do you remove the router fence when you flush trim the edges on the router table? Many many thanks man!!! Originally Posted by Acrylics.

A little trick for you though is to wrap a piece of masking tape double thick if you like where the bearing would go and make a rough cut that way.

Originally Posted by shikhyung. That last tip was as good as gold. Thanks James. Drilling Acrylic Lubricants: Below, you will find that some bits require lubricant, some benefit by it and some don't need it at all. For a lubricant, you can use several things.

Oil is likely the obvious choice and any light oil like 3-in-1 oil or even WD will work but they're a bit messy. Since the main problem is heating the acrylic, water may seem like a good choice and it is but not plain water. Water will cause tools to corrode, especially if you're drilling on a drill press with a bare steel table. Water and baking soda, however, will not cause corrosion. Baking soda is a rust inhibitor.

This keeps the acrylic cool, the baking soda adds a bit of lubrication don't get any on the floor, it is slippery and cleanup is easy.

When using oil, you'll want to use it sparingly. The bottle to the right is good for applying a lubricant. If you buy one like this available at McMaster-Carr and other distributors , buy one with a medium sized bore in the needed protected by the plastic cap here. If the bore is too small, it will clog frequently. When you are drilling the holes, you can tell if the material is being cut properly by the swarf the shavings.

They should be ribbons of acrylic material that break apart with very little effort. If the material is balling up and cools to hard clumps, it was melting during cutting and you need to change the way you're drilling change the bit type, cut slower, use lubricant The cut holes should be clean and relatively smooth. They won't be perfectly clear like the top surface but they shouldn't have any gouges in the wall of the hole.

The first hole was drilled quickly. The acrylic didn't melt but the bottom edge of the hole chipped. This hole was drilled slowly to try to prevent chipping but the acrylic melted and made a mess of the hole. This last hole was drilled slowly but this time baking soda and water were used as a lubricant. This produced a clean hole and there was absolutely no chipping when the bit exited the hole. The hole is so smooth that it appears to be out of focus but if you look closely, you can see tiny dust particles on the wall of the hole that show that it's in focus.

Spiral Bit: Standard spiral drill bits will not work well on acrylic. Their cutting angle is too aggressive which causes it to try to cut too quickly. This will lead to cracking and chipping around the hole. If you want to use a spiral bit, try a bit like the one shown in the following photo. You can see that the main cutting edge is flat instead of angled like a normal bit. This causes the material to be cut in a more controlled fashion.

This bit benefits from lubrication but it's not required. This bit was purchased from McMaster-Carr and the part number is: A If you don't want to spend the money on a new bit, you can grind a standard bit's cutting edge square. This bit also benefits from lubrication but it's not required. Forstner Bit: Forstner bits are very high quality bits that are generally used for woodworking. They make a very clean hole with little or no chipping.

This bit requires lubrication. If the bit is used dry, the friction between the sides of the bit and the material will cause the acrylic to melt very bad. When used with lubricant, the hole will be very clean but you have to go slowly as you exit the bottom of the acrylic.

Standard Woodboring Bit: Some people recommend against using woodboring bits but I've never had a problem with them. One advantage of the wood bit is the long centering point.

This point will exit the other side of the material before the cutting edge. This allows you to turn the material over and drill from the other side. Since the cutting edge will not be pushing out as the bit cuts through surface of the material, there will be little or no chipping on either side of the material.

This bit needs no lubrication. The following two bits have carbide tips. The first is a bit that's normally used to drill through regular glass. The second one is a solid carbide bit that's designed to cut metal. Like some of the previous bits, notice that the cutting edge is perpendicular to the surface of the material being drilled.

Unlike standard twist drill bits, they don't cut aggressively. The glass cutting bit goes through the acrylic very cleanly and requires no lubricant. The carbide bit goes through cleanly but requires lubricant. Either of these would be a good choice if you need to drill a lot of holes. When using any of the different bits for drilling acrylic, you should: Go slow. Do not force the bit to cut too quickly. Use a drill press. This allows you to have much more control over the cutting speed and ensures that you're drilling the hole perfectly perpendicular to the material.

You should clamp small pieces down. If the bit grabs the material and spins it, it will cut you. Small pieces don't allow you to get a good enough grip to prevent the piece from spinning with the bit. Practice on a piece of scrap material. If you crack a piece of acrylic after you've already polished the edges, you are not going to be happy. Fasteners: When screwing a piece of acrylic down, you'll need to use some type of washer under the screw. Fiber, plastic and rubber washers will work.

If you can't find those types of washers, standard metal flat washers will be better than nothing. If you use washers, you're less likely to crack the material if the screw doesn't go in perfectly straight. Pre-drilling the hole in the wood will help ensure that the screw goes in straight. When tightening the screws, do not over-tighten especially when the surface under the acrylic is not hard. If there's a soft gasket under the acrylic, over-tightening the screw will cause the material to crack.

You should also use pan head screws those with a flat mating surface under its head. Using bevel or bugle headed drywall screws will cause the acrylic to crack. In some instances, you may need to produce attachment points on the acrylic sheets.

These are best know as Helicoils but are made by several manufacturers. The next image shows you the bottom of a threaded insert. The tang is used to install the insert and is then broken off to allow the screw to extend beyond the bottom of the threads. This is the installed insert. When installing the screws, you must make sure that it doesn't bottom out in the hole. If it does, it will likely crack the acrylic. If you can't find screws of precisely the right length, you may need to cut them to length.

For small screws, you can use the screw cutter commonly found in cheap wire-crimping pliers like THESE. For larger screws, you may have to cut them with a hack saw. To make sure that the threads can be restored, thread a nut or thread-cutting die onto the screw before you cut it. After cutting, run the nut or die over the threads until they move freely over the end of the screw.

Adhesives: Adhesives for acrylic are more like solvents than adhesives. The adhesives melt the acrylic. You apply the adhesive to the acrylic at the point where you want to join the pieces. When when solvent evaporates, the two pieces will be permanently bonded. Before you apply the adhesive, you need to do the following: You must have the pieces clamped in place and they must be perfectly aligned.

If you have to move the pieces after the solvent begins to evaporate, you won't have a nice looking joint. You must make sure that the solvent can't drip or run where the piece is making contact with the clamp or surface it's sitting on. If it does, the imprint of whatever was touching it will be melted into the acrylic. If this happens, you can smooth it like you would a cut edge and flame polish it.

It won't be as perfect as the flawless surface but it can reduce the visible damage. In some instances, it may be necessary to bond the joint in stages.

If you can't clamp it in a way that will ensure that no solvent can get onto the clamps, you can bond half then the other half. Tilt it slightly so that it cannot run towards the clamp. The following image shows a small piece 6" across 'clamped' with electrical tape.

When this method is used, the tape is stretched tightly on the ends to apply force between the pieces. Start applying the tape at the top edge of the vertical piece.

When you begin applying it to the side, pull it tight and around the bottom corner. When applying it to the bottom face, use your fingers to force the tape down with as few voids as possible.

This will prevent the solvent from getting back onto the face and damaging it. Try not to leave any pockets on the front of the tape.

They will hold solvent and may cause the material to distort a bit. When you come up the other side, stretch it before allowing it to make contact and as soon as it makes contact, pull it around the top corner and back to the center of the top edge where you'll cut or break it off.

If you didn't leave too much overhang on the bottom edge, you should be able to see the point where the two pieces meet and will be able to align them.

You won't be able to see the ends of the pieces but the tape is thin enough that you can feel whether the ends are aligned or not.

When joining to an edge that's been finished finely sanded or polished , you may want to mask the finished edge before applying the adhesive. This can be done with electrical tape. Apply the tape to the edge don't stretch it when laying it down with a bit of overhang to the edge adjacent to the face that will be joined.

To cut the tape flush, run a sharp razor knife along the face. When cutting, pull the blade so that it pulls the tape towards the edge, not away from it. Make sure that it's laid down completely along the cut edge. This will prevent any solvent from getting behind it and damaging the finished edge. When you remove the tape, there may be a bit of adhesive left behind.

All you need to do is to re-apply the sticky side of the used tape to the remaining adhesive. When you pull it off, it will remove the adhesive. Note: When cutting the tape used to mask the edges, you want to cut it precisely at the top edge of the material. When making the cut, you will have to make sure that the blade is precisely on the top face of the sheet. You will have to be careful not to cut into the acrylic.

Too much angle and it will cut the acrylic. Too little angle and you'll leave the edge of the tape too high. If the tape is left too high, you will not be able to see the corners of the pieces being joined which could make critical alignment a bit more difficult. You must avoid using too much adhesive. It won't be too unsightly but you should be aware of the possibility of damage. When possible, set the panels similar to the image below.

This will make sure that all of the solvent will run into the joint. Be aware that the solvent runs very quickly. It's described as water thin but it appears to have much less surface tension and therefore runs much faster. The Weld-On 3 will run out of a syringe without pushing the plunger. Like the first few cuts, you should practice bonding a few scrap pieces.