cutting acrylic

[Nemanja Vujkovic]

We are going to cut acrylic materials in the near future. Did anyone cut something like that, if so what are the bet bits, rpm speed, and ipm speed?

Thank You!

[Forrest Chapman]

Nema,

I assume your talking about 1/2\" solid surface (Hi-macs,Corian). If so we use a 1/4\" by 1\" cutting lenght upshear 2 flute. We run 200ipm at 18000rpm. The bits are cheap but last a long time. We cut maybe 20k worth of material with a 20$ bit.

Forrest

[Nemanja Vujkovic]

No, it's not 1/2\" solid surface. It is up to a 1/4\" optical grade acrylic. I belive that we will cut 1/8\" thick.

[Todd Miller]

We have used 1/4\" diameter Belin tools in the past. We run these tools @ 18000 RPM'S and around 200 IPM. These numbers may vary. So run a few tests cuts.

Note: When cutting, we use an upspiral single fluted tool (Belin). We also use D/F tape to hold down our parts. Below is a link to Woodworkerswholesale.com. These are the Belin tools that I am refering to. Click on the image for details.

http://www.woodworkerswholesale.com/Sea ... =Belin%2EY

[Nemanja Vujkovic]

Thank You Todd, I will certainly try that bit.

[Todd Miller]

Nemanja,
Remember to double click on the picture. Then look at the description. This will tell you if the tool is used for aluminum, wood, acrylic, ect.

[Nemanja Vujkovic]

Todd,

what is the difference between bit that cut aluminum or wood?

[Todd Miller]

You cannot tell in the pictures, but the tool has serrated edges along the back side of the tool. Some tools have larger edges than others. The larger edges are for acrylic, the smaller edges are for aluminum.

[Nemanja Vujkovic]

It's a little of topic, but today we cut gaorboard which is fome core sheet, and it worked great.
We used straight double flute bit at 400 ipm's.