Cutting Acrylic

[cropwell]

Hi,

Especially with small cutters, you need to cut fast enough to avoid rubbing and have open architecture end mills (like the one for ali - room for the chips to fly out). Single flute seem to work OK.

The pattern was done with a 10deg 0.2mm engraver DOC 0.2 total depth 0.5mm speed 12,000rpm feed 10mm/sec 66% stepover. I use a spray bottle with 75% deionised water 25% isopropanol and a splash of dishwasher rinse aid to kill surface tension. Lettering was done with a 90deg 4 flute V cutter, similar speeds and feeds, but with a more DOC as the bit is stronger. My general rule of thumb for acrylic and wood is DOC = diameter of cutter.


Infill is Humbrol enamel.

Hope this helps.

I am thinking of making a 'wet bench' so I can pump my cutting fluid over it and recover and re-use it. I will post results if I do it.

Cheers,

Rob