Acrylic Cutting Help

[AdCNC]

If your chip evacuation is not sufficient then this is normally the cause of this. Do you use a decent vacuum to remove the chips as they are being cut? What tends to happen is if you start to recut the same chips they become hot and rub and "smear" around the cutter and are deposited on to the material edge and result in what you see in your picture!.. thats what ive come across in the past.

Failing that use some wet+dry like 1200 grit to clean the edge then give it a lick with a blowtorch preferably using MAP Gas as this burns hotter and has less oxygen content so less contamination of the plastics edge.

[Tenson]

Okay I have had another play.

I secured my Z axis properly to the X axis(!) and also made a kind of extender tube to get the vacuum suction closer to the work piece. I then tried a cut, but this time I reduced the spindle speed. I used GWizard to receommend a feed and speed and I noticed that actually it was giving me a smaller chipload than recomended. I suppose it was trying to keep tool deflection as low as possible but I found I could reduce the spindle RPM and still keep deflection below the problem area. GWizard sugested (for a 2flute 3.17mm bit) 1mm passes with 2000mm/min and 22,000RPM. I reduced this to 17,000RPM and kept the rest the same.

The cut is clean, but does have a slight texture, is this about as good as you guys are getting or should I still aim for higher?