Donkey's years ago when I made some perspex stuff in the workshop, I was shown to mill it at a low-ish feed rate, and use parafin as a lubricant. At the speed routers run, I don't know if that tip is any use though.
Yes, it's not too bad. The trick is to make sure you're cutting it. The moment you stop cutting it, you get welding problems. Once you've welded crud to the tool edge, it won't cut again and it all goes very bad very quuckly. So use sharp tools, a light cut and a fairly agressive feedrate so that it's always cutting fresh. Don't let it sit still and rub.
Plunge cutting is hard. You might find it easier to drill a pilot.
I scavenged some slabs of perspex (25 mm thick) from a shop that went out of business. One had a groove cut in it. I guess that this was made with a plunge router. Has anybody tried this? I once cut 6 mm thick perspex with a jigsaw, using the finest blade I could find, but it still made a rough edge.
Bosch do a jigsaw blade for plastics that cuts perspex as good as the edges of commercially bought sheets. A few minutes work with a fine file and a quick pass with a blowtorch and they are perfect.
Ta - I'll have to look out for that. Last time I did some a few months ago on 1/8" sheets I used a metal-cutting blade and a light oil as a lubricant (which was vital to avoid the welding problems that Andy mentioned). Worked very well (so long as the sheets are well-supported and not allowed to flex) but took a long time.
cheers
Jules
On Apr 13, 2:23=A0pm, " snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com" wrote: .
A down-cut router cutter helps to avoid break-out but you must keep the feed up to spread the heat build-up.
For jigsawing it, use a good jigsaw that's vibration free and the right amount of pendulum action. This avoids the rubbing on the return stroke that causes most of the heating problems.
We used to cut out the perspex scratchplates for Hayman guitars and basses in-house on a router table (spindle-cutter?). The standard single-flute cutter tended to burn the perspex through friction but a multi-blade cutter worked well. I think the optimum was a three-flute cutter but I don't remember too well as it was another bloke who did that job! And it was an awfully long time ago.
Nick
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