Acrylic mirror material ...

[Arfa Daily]

Anyone had any experience of the stuff ? I have a need to make three small mirrors - about credit card size - and two of them are not square. 3mm acrylic mirror material is available dirt cheap on Fleabay, and is reckoned to be at least as good as glass. Question is, how do you cut the stuff reasonably neatly ? I've cut other acrylics before and always found them to be a nightmare at clogging any cutting tools. I was thinking maybe something like a Dremel with a general purpose cutting wheel ? They market this material as 'shatterproof', so that's good when it comes to cutting it, right ... ? I wonder if that also means that it would score and snap ?

Arfa

[usenet2012]

In message , Arfa Daily writes

Expect it to scratch badly in use.

[PeterC]

Needs something sharp - I once cut 8' along a sheet of polypropylene with a bluntish jigsaw and found that I still had a single sheet but with a ridge along each side! A wheel would do it if the teeth are really sharp. Could be interesting holding a small pieces without scratching them.

[Martin Brown]

Main problem in use is that the surface is soft and scratches easily so you will forever be repolishing it.

To cut it clamp between two pieces of wood faced with paper to support it and make the cutting strokes slow and towards the silvered face. If you work it hard the material will melt and clog the saw. It melts very easily.

[Frank Erskine]

Angle grinder.

[Scott M]

I bought some the other week to use as a reflector to replace the corroded piece of metal in my car's number plate illuminaire.

As said, scratches quite easily. Gives a reflection very nearly as good as glass.

I had to cut a couple of small rectangles so clamped it to a piece of wood and fed it through my lathe, set up as a table saw. It uses a 2" dia cutting saw and was probably running at 800rpm (top speed!) It produced a really nice finish. I mention this as whenever I've tried similar material with my Dremelesque it ends up running at a far higher speed and melts the swarf into the piece which is then a pain to get rid of.

So I reckon way to do it (for odd shapes) is to clamp the stuff down with a guide piece and use a fine bladed hacksaw.

Scott

[Andy Champ]

Sounds to me as if you need a fretsaw. They aren't expensive.

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Last thing you want when cutting acrylic is something which generates heat as it melts easily. A fine tooth hand wood saw is fine. Finish with a metal file. You can polish the edge with fine sandpaper followed by metal polish like brasso.

[Man at B&Q]

It's exactly what you want - a laser cutter. It's controling where the heat goes that is key :-)

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Right. I'll look out for one on special offer at Lidl.

[Scott M]

Like Arfa - now you come to mention it......

Scott

[Brian Gaff]

Yes they scratch, so be careful with the cleaning. You can polish out small scratches I think. Weird stuff that attracts muck like mad.

Brian