Advice for cutting acrylic sheet

[Robin Hewitt]

If you want to cut through acryllic then you want the cheap Chinese K40 laser. A 40W laser converts acrylic to vapour, it simply disappears at an amazing rate of cut. To glue acrylic you need chloroform. I bought a litre from Italy on eBay, it may not be so easy to get once we leave the European free trade thingy so get some while you can.

[A_Camera]

If you want to cut through acryllic then you want the cheap Chinese K40 laser. A 40W laser converts acrylic to vapour, it simply disappears at an amazing rate of cut. To glue acrylic you need chloroform. I bought a litre from Italy on eBay, it may not be so easy to get once we leave the European free trade thingy so get some while you can.

What are you using the chloroform for? Cooling? Isn't that very risky? Or are you using it outdoors? Even so... is it worth the risks?

[Robin Hewitt]

Chloroform dissolves acryllic for that perfect glue line. Everything else is but a poor sustitute.

[cropwell]

To glue acrylic you need chloroform. I bought a litre from Italy on eBay, it may not be so easy to get once we leave the European free trade thingy so get some while you can.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/produ...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Methylene chloride can also be used to bond the stuff, but it will mar the surface if you use too much.

[Robin Hewitt]

Chloroform is trichloromethane.

[cropwell]

Chloroform is trichloromethane.

and Methylene Chloride is dichloromethane

[Robin Hewitt]

...and a cheap cigar is still a smoke!

[magicniner]

...and a cheap cigar is still a smoke!

But I'd rather you than me ;-)

[magicniner]

...and a cheap cigar is still a smoke!

But I'd rather you than me ;-)

[Kitwn]

One fixing method I use for thin wood and acrylic is to firmly clamp the blank down as normal to a sacrificial base and start the cutting with a stand-alone drilling operation to create fixing holes between the parts to be cut. Where possible I also cut holes that are part of the pieces at this point. Fixing screws can then be used at many places within the sheet, not just clamps at the edges. The clamps can them be removed to allow cutting out to the edges of the piece if required.
Depending on what holes are part of the piece to be cut and what extra holes you can tolerate adding, this method can be used to avoid the need for holding tabs.

This works well but needs to be planned carefully and the fixing holes are best drawn on their own layer as part of the overall layout design.