The current American Woodworker has an article on making clear router baseplates. And... I found a large sheet of 1/4" clear plastic at a garage sale yesterday. So I decided to make a base.
The plastic cut, drilled, and routed very easily, with none of the brittleness I associate with acrylic; so I figured it must be polycarbonate (which I have not used before).
The article says to use either acrylic or polycarbonate, and to "flame finish" it. As soon as I touched it with the flame, it caught on fire! (actually I tested it on a piece of scrap first, so nothing was lost...)
So what kinda plastic do I have? If acrylic and polycarb can be flame finished, then I must have something different?