Main > Woodworking
Working with Plastics
selfie:
Anything else
Bonding. NEVER USE SUPERGLUE. It will cloud and craze the acrylic and not bond well. Methylene Chloride, the active ingredient in acrylic paint stripper, is a good solvent for light duty bonding. There are plenty of commercial glues available but you can make you own if you have Methylene Chloride. Add small pieces of the acrylic to some Methylene Chloride and allow the solvent to melt the chips to a glue like consistency. You can make coloured glues this way.
Polycarbonate can be pop riveted. The brittle nature of acrylic makes this an unsuitable solution.
Polishing plastics can be done in two ways flame polishing and abrasive polishing.
Flame polishing involves heating the top layer with a very fine very hot flame and melting the outer edge of the acrylic and it will then cool nice and glossy. I have a hydrogen generator that is designed as a jewellers welder. Flame polishing is only suited to cut edges.
Abrasive polishing is sanding. Using progressively finer grades the surface imperfections are removed. Using finer grits of sandpaper up to 2000 grit then moving to liquid compounds is the way to go. Metal polishes work well, automotive cut and polishes and even toothpaste will do a good job.
Tapped thicker acrylic can hold a decent amount of strength but only use fine threads. A bit of grease on the tap will give the threads a bit of a polish.
There is a lot of info there but no doubt someone will want to know something else, or I've forgotten something blindly obvious so Any other queries or questions just ask...
Cheers
Damien
Nephasth:
--- Quote from: selfie on March 28, 2012, 09:16:50 pm ---
Drilling
The key to cutting clean holes is to scrape not cut. Any standard twist drill can be sharpened to cut acrylic by taking the leading edge off the cutting surface.
--- End quote ---
Definitely tip of the day! I will be trying this out next time I drill plexi. And welcome to the boards!
wweumina:
Thanks. Very useful information. :applaud:
Le Chuck:
Great thread, thanks for sharing! :applaud:
kahlid74:
Great thread, thanks for sharing. Is there anyway this can get stickied perhaps in a relevant forum? Maybe woodworking?
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