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RE: Cutting Acrylic



Original poster: "Vanderputten, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gvp-at-pvaintl-dot-com>

Sawing has worked the best for me as far as the finished edge goes. However,
if you really have a significant visible piece to be cut (the top part of my
base was 18 x 18 x 1/2" with a 3.5" hole in the center), have it
professionally laser cut. It was expensive ( $20 for the cuts), but
flawless. 

For all other work I get by with a special saw blade designed for cutting
plastics in my table saw. It has many small teeth and very little kerf. It
still heats up but not as fast as a regular blade and gives a pretty smooth
and quite glue-able edge. Even cutting the hypotenuse side of a conical
primary support, even through the center of all those 1/4" holes, went OK.
Not perfect, but good enough. I cut lexan pipe (up to 5') on my chopper
(with its regular cross-cut blade) with good results but you really have to
do a slow speed and very steady stroke for a good smooth cut. 

Best of luck

Gary

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Tuesday, July 17, 2001 3:23 PM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Cutting Acrylic

Original poster: "Ben Murrell by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<benmurrell-at-att-dot-net>

Hi all,
        I have been trying to cut out some acrylic for a primary coil form
and
have run into some major problems. First off, my scroll saw balde will not
cut
a 90 degree turn into the acrylic.I started cutting anyways, knowing I would
have to switch off later. After a few cuts, the acrylic began to break where
I
was cutting. Luckily, the breakings did not come off at high speeds and no
damage was caused to me. Also, the areas of acrylic that need to remain
intact
still remain intact. I later tryed using and exacto type knife. After 30
minutes of repaeted cutting in the same place, only a tiny groove was taken
out. I tryed varying pressure and angle to no avail. Does anyone know a
"good"
way to cut through .1inch acrylic easily and quickly with little to no risk
of
breaking?
Thanks in advance,
Ben