How and with what to cut plexiglass?

One of the most common synthetic materials used for domestic and industrial purposes is plexiglass, which is produced by polymerization of methacrylic acid and ether components. Because of its composition, plexiglass got the name acrylic. You can cut it using a special device or improvised means. When cutting plexiglass with a power tool, difficulties often arise due to the fact that the material begins to melt and stick to the cutting blade. Nevertheless, there are still ways to help cut acrylic at home.

Colored and transparent organic glass has certain properties that affect the electric tool at the moment when the material is cut. The fact is that acrylic tends to melt at 160 ° C. If you need to bend a flat sheet, then this can be done after heating it to 100 ° C. When exposed to the cutting blade of a power tool, the cut site heats up and the material in molten form sticks to its surface, so cutting off the plexiglass is a rather problematic task.

Despite the complexity of processing, acrylic glass has a wide range of applications. To cut the material, thereby giving it the desired size, modern equipment is used in production conditions:

• a CNC laser machine, where a laser, like a knife, cuts an acrylic surface;
• an electric cutter with which you can make holes or a shaped cutout;
• machines equipped with a band saw;
• disk-type electric cutter.

Laser cutting and milling have a high degree of productivity and are used in mass production... This equipment is capable of cutting acrylic material with a high degree of precision and accuracy. Most of all, laser processing is currently widespread, the accuracy of work is achieved due to the fact that a beam is formed, the thickness of which is 0.1 mm.

Mechanical cutting of acrylic glass is accompanied by heating of the material, as a result of which it begins to melt, while forming significant smoke. To prevent the melting process, the cutting operation must be accompanied by cooling the acrylic, which is carried out using the supply of water or a stream of cold air.

Home craftsmen often perform organic glass processing on their own, using available tools.

• Hacksaw for metal. The cutting blade is characterized by the presence of fine teeth located at a minimum distance from each other. The hacksaw blade is made from a tough, hardened steel alloy, so the cutting edge becomes blunt slowly. Using it makes it possible to get an even cut due to a smooth tangential motion. In the process of work, it is not recommended to cut quickly so that the acrylic does not heat up and undergo plastic deformation. The finished cut is obtained with roughness, which will need to be sanded with sandpaper.

• Acrylic glass cutter. This device is sold in retail chains and is intended for cutting plexiglass with a small thickness - up to 3 mm.To obtain an even cut, a ruler is fixed on the surface of organic glass, then a cut of the material is made using a cutter (approximately half of its thickness). After this cut, the sheet is broken off along the intended line. The finished cut turns out to be uneven, therefore, in the future, the workpiece will have to go through a long grinding.

• Circular saw... The disc for cutting plexiglass should be with small, frequent teeth. If you use a disc with a large pitch between them, then chips and cracks may appear on the processed material. After receiving a cut, the workpiece requires finishing grinding.

• Milling cutter with bearing. This power tool makes a high-quality cut on plexiglass, but at the same time the cutting knives quickly become dull and become unusable. When working with a cutter, acrylic heats up quickly, this process is accompanied by strong smoke. To avoid heating the material, water is used to cool the work surface.

• Jigsaw... This tool is convenient in that it has the ability to adjust the feed speed of the cutting blade. To work with organic glass, special cutting blades are used, which are fixed in the jigsaw holder. You can replace such saws with a blade for wood, the main thing is that the teeth of the blade are often located and have a small size. You need to work at low speeds, otherwise the material will begin to stick to the canvas. Once the cut has been completed, the workpiece can be sanded or flame treated with a lighter. You can make straight or curved cuts with a jigsaw.

• Bulgarian... For cutting a thick sheet of plexiglass, you can use a disc with three large teeth, which is designed for woodwork. Such a tool does a good job of making straight cuts. During operation, acrylic glass does not melt or stick to the disc. It can be used to process acrylic with a thickness of 5-10 mm.

Some home craftsmen use for cutting organic glass ordinary glass cutter... The results of the operation of the listed tools completely depend on the experience of the master, and no one is insured from the possibility of spoiling the material in this case.

In order to cut high quality plexiglass with your own hands at home, experienced craftsmen advise to adhere to some rules (they apply not only to acrylic, but also to plexiglass, as well as cellular polycarbonate).

1. It will be much easier to cut a curly workpiece to size or saw off an even piece of acrylic glass, if, before starting work, warm up the material over a heat source: a gas burner or hair dryer. This must be done at a considerable distance so as not to melt the material.
2. Cutting out a workpiece from plexiglass with a small thickness from 2 mm to 5 mm can be done using an electric jigsaw. With its help, you can not only make a straight cut, but also cut a circle. For work, you need to take a narrow and thin canvas with fine teeth.
3. It is easier to cut the glass with a blade marked MP. S. Steel for the production of sheets is hardened and high strength.
4. Sawing glass is necessary at low speeds of the cutting blade feed. You can choose the speed for each tool in the process of work in a practical way. During the sawing process, it is important to ensure that the acrylic glass does not start to melt.
5. Work on cutting organic glass should be carried out in goggles or a mask. When cutting the material, a large amount of fine chips is formed, which are scattered in different directions at a high speed.

The greatest difficulties in home cutting of organic glass arise when creating complex curvilinear cuts.The easiest way to solve this problem is using laser industrial equipment, where automated control allows you to perform all the necessary functions with the highest accuracy and without human intervention. Hand curly cutting of acrylic is performed according to a pre-made template. The easiest way to make such a cut is a cutter. The contours of the resulting workpiece will be jagged and rough, which are removed by grinding.

At home, you can speed up the cutting process of organic glass using a red-hot nichrome wire connected to a voltage source of 24 V. The heated nichrome wire melts the acrylic material through and through at the desired cut point. At the same time, the cut edges are smooth.

To make the cut of the acrylic sheet evenly during work it is important to monitor the feed speed of the cutting blade. It is best to start the cutting process with the lowest speed of the power tool. You can choose the optimal mode only experimentally. If during operation the acrylic material began to melt and adhered to the cutting blade, then the work must be stopped, the blade must be cleaned of contamination, and the workpiece to be sawn must be allowed time to cool down.

To cut a small piece of organic glass, you can use a slotted screwdriver. The screwdriver is heated over a gas burner and held with its slotted part along a ruler attached to the workpiece.

Under the influence of the heated section of the screwdriver, a shallow groove will appear in the material. This groove can be deepened even further and then break off the edge of the glass, or take a sawing tool and cut the material further in the direction of the groove. After cutting, the edge of the workpiece will be uneven. It can be leveled by long-term grinding.

In the next video, you will learn how to cut plexiglass quickly and easily.