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| Drilling holes in Plexiglass for Control Panel |
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| dmish82:
I am about to get some plexiglass for my control panel and was wondering the best way to go about drilling holes for the buttons and joysticks in the plexiglass? I used a hole saw for the wood and was wondering if that will work on the plexiglass or if any better or more careful methods should be used. Thanks. |
| Hoagie_one:
many have said a spade bit, drilling in reverse and melting your way through is the best, but i havent tried it personally |
| Xiaou2:
Cutting plexi is tricky.. but not that bad. The biggest troubles arise if you do not clamp the material. Any vibrations will cause the fractures. 1) Keep plexi covering on till your finished - else it will scratch while your working on it. 2) Clamp plexi to the control panel. Use a soft clamp, or pop something like a folder rag in the jaws to avoid scratches from the clamps. 3) Drill using a drill guide to reduce vibrations.. or better - use a drill press. Trying to freehand drill will most likely result in cracking as even a small kick or varience in your cutting angle will cause a crack. 4) Bit selection: a) Fostner bit = cleanest smoothest cuts! but most expensive bits. A little slow to cut b) Spade Bit - very fast cutting, nice holes. Need drillguide or press to use well. Cheapest bits. (buying a full set is usually less costly overall, and nice to have all the sizes) c) Holesaw - med speed holes. Have to unclog the bit each holes. A little rough. Get a dedicated bit rather than a multi head interchangable one as they arnt very durrbale, will break fast. bi-metal will cut thru all: metal, wood, plexi. Good bits are fairly costly, but will last a long time. d) Circle cutter - a little tricky to use.. needs a drill press to use. Good for obscenely large holes. *** Drill tips: Drill at HIGHEST speed setting - BUT - drill down as SLOW as possible. Letting the speed of the drill heat the plexi to the point of making it melt slightly so that it will not crack. Some drill in reverse - but thats not nessessary... and still can cause a crack if you drill too fast downwards. A drill hole that would take about 1 second in a harder material, would take about 10 or more seconds to avoid cracks. 5) Drill a hole that will be for a bolt that will hold the plexi to the panel. Once that is drilled, pop the bolt in and lightly tighten it. Do each of the corners one at a time this way. This will help to keep the the material in place and might even choose to remove the clamps afterwords 6) Drill the Plexi and the control panel hole at the same time to reduce problems with wandering (where plexi holes and wood holes dont line up well). OR 6b) Drill a the panel from the bottom, but, must add another piece of wood to the bottom & clamp that as well (making a plexi sandwhich). OR 6c) Drill pilot holes, then use a router to cut the rest - following the edges. A 1/4" rotozip bit gets good results... hadnt tried a standard bit. 7) Smooth edges of holes by lightly hand sanding them with a high grit paper. Cutting Edges: Routers will work great for this. I have cut plexi with a tablesaw tho - and it does work... but its messy and chips the edges a bit. It may have been better if I had tried to sandwhich the plexi in between wood before the cut - but didnt think about that at the time. Scoring does work as well. Clamp a straight edge to the plexi, then run razorblade across the edge into the plexi. you will need to repeat this several times. After getting fairly deep into the material... you may then try to break the parts appart. Make sure to clamp the halves tightly so that one of the edges is overhung over a table edge or simular. Scoring may still need a good deal of sanding and maybe some shapeing. I recomend practicing this a few times before the actual piece. |
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