Acrylics

Cast and Extruded Acrylic

Acrylic is a wonderful plastic that can be used for all sorts of different projects. It comes in both transparent and colored options, and can be machined, laser cut, or heated and bent into almost any shape. Often substituted for glass, acrylic, also called plexiglass or lucite is lighter in weight by up to 50% with greater transparency.

Extruded acrylic costs less than cast. It is easier to laser cut. It is polished more cost effectively. It is less susceptible to dirt. It is better suited to cementing and thermoforming because of lower melting point than cast acrylic

Cutting Acrylic sheets

Method #1

Using a Plastic scoring knife

Cutting acrylic using plastic scoring knife

Method #2

Using a Benchtop Band saw

Cutting using bench bandsaw

Method #3

Using a Laser Cutter

Laser cutting

Bending Acrylic Sheet

Oven


Heating and bending


Gluing



Drilling



Treating the edges

Edge scraper tool

If acrylic comes out of a table saw it can have sharp edges, which makes it difficult to handle. Use edge scraper tool to soften the edges

For bevelled ir bulldozed edge feed the plastic into a router

After the piece is routed you can flame polish it

1. Flame polishing works well om acrylic but dies not work well on other plastics like polycarbonate

2. Propane gas is not hot enough for the torch, instead use mathgas

3. If sanding is done (orbital sander), then finish it with buffing (using buffing wheel)

4. One the edge is polished, never try to glue it. Only glue non polished edges

Using a Handheld Router

A router is a hand tool or power tool that a worker uses to rout (hollow out) an area in relatively hard material like wood or plastic. Routing is a shaping process that produces finished edges and shapes. Some materials that are difficult to shape with other processes, (such as fiber-glass, Kevlar, and graphite) can be shaped and finished neatly via various routing techniques. Apart from finished edges and shaping, cutaways, holes, and contours can also be shaped using routers