Cutting Acrylic - my recipe

[analogman]

FWIW

Cutting plastics is far from my main business so I did not want to purchase and special tooling, just wanted to use what was in the shop.

I read a number of threads on cutting acrylic, as well as a few great online guides:

http://www.displays2go.com/5_routing.pdf
http://www.plasticrouting.com

I am cutting extruded acrylic (yes the cheap stuff) and got excellent results with the following setup:

0.100” DOC
10000 RPM
0.400” straight cut brazed carbide bit (straight cut is less cutting edge on the material, didn't have an up cut)
100 IPM
Climb cut (Clockwise)
Ramp in
Vacuum on to clear chips

Rough cut to oversize then do a finishing pass (0.050")

No cooling or air.

Reuslts: great. no welding, chips were cool, great edge finish.

[ger21]

I don't worry about melting when making a finishing pass. Just make a single full depth pass, then let the finishing pass clean up the edge. You'll usually only get melting when cutting through acrylic is on both sides of the bit. If you're just cutting along the edges of the sheet, you shouldn't have any problems.