Drilling, Cutting, etc PlexiGlass

[kelemvor]

What's the best way to cut plexiglass to cover a CP?  I've used my table saw before and ended up with little plastic shards flying everywhere in my workshop.  Also for drilling the holes too.  Not sure if I can just drill them with my spade bit or if something else works better.

ANy advice would be great.

[fixedpigs]

What's the best way to cut wood to make a CP?  I've used my table saw before and ended up with sawdust flying everywhere in my workshop.  Also for drilling the holes too.  Not sure if I can just drill them with my spade bit or if something else works better.

ANy advice would be great.

[leapinlew]

Router with a flush trim bit.

[leapinlew]

Starting here and work your way through a couple posts on page 2.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55021.msg547383#msg547383

[kelemvor]

Well, 2 out of 3 replies that are actually useful.  Not too bad of a percentage I guess.

Have to go dig out the router I guess.  Pretty sure I have a flush trim bit around somewhere.  heh heh.

Thanks.

[fixedpigs]

you'll get plastic all over with a router too...

try some dust collection systems...

[kelemvor]

Mainly just concerned about cracking the Plexi...

[unclet]

When cutting out the plexiglas I used a hand-held jig saw with a blade specifically made for plastics.   I went real slow and nothing cracked.  DO NOT TRY TO DO TIGHT TURNS since this will probably put to much stress of the plexiglas and split it.

As for drilling out the holes ...... I would first cut out all of the holes you want on your wooden control panel top.  Once all cutting of the control panel has been completed, then you can start on the plexiglas to cover it.   

DO NOT REMOVE THE PLASTIC COVERING WHICH COMES ON THE PLEXIGLAS

What I recommend is the following:

1) Put a "scrap" piece of 3/4" wood (or MDF) on your workbench.

2) Put the plexiglas on top of this scrap of mdf (leave the plastic covering on your plexiglas)

3) Put the "front" of your control panel face down on the plexiglas

4) Tape the bottom piece of scrap wood to the top piece of your control panel using tape all around the complete panel so none of the pieces move on you.  You will be using some clamps in the steps below but this tape will ensure no pieces move on you when you are moving your clamps around.

5) Now, get your drill and put in the 1-1/8" wood drill bit you used for drilling on the pushbutton holes in your control panel.

6) Use some clamps to secure around the section which you will be drilling to make absolutely sure nothing moves when you drill.

7) Insert the drill bit into a control panel hole (which has already been drilled) and slowly make your drill bit turn (not real slow but definitely not on high power either).   You do not want to drill right through the plexiglas with the same force as you do with wood but rather let the spinning drill bit melt the plexiglas away.  Once you feel like it has been spinning a bit and feel it melting you can apply a little more pressure to and then wait for the melting to continue.

8 ) Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all buttons are drilled out.


Note1: If you have trackball rectangular hole to cut out, then drill out a small hole in each corner of the rectangle and then use your hand held jig saw to cut from one corner to the next until it is all cut out.   You should be using the rectangle which has already been cut out of your control panel as a guide.   Make sure your clamp down around the rectangle before cutting so the plexiglas will not chip/split ... and just go slow.

Note2: If the protective film on your plexiglas has been removed then I would recommend you use blue painters tape to tape over the plexiglas before cutting begins.

Note3: Practice cutting and drilling on a scrap piece of plexiglas before doing the real thing .... that stuff can get expensive.  Where ever you buy the plexiglas from they might have a garbage can which has unwanted scraps in it..... so just take some home for free to practice.


Hopefully this is an answer you were hoping for ....... all of this stuffed worked for me.

[DaveMMR]

I ended up having to do plexi since there was a mistake in putting on my overlay that left a little bit sticking up.  I'm going to redo it but in the meantime, I put plexi down so it annoyed me less.

I don't think I did anything terribly fancy or complicated (then again, my panel is a simple rectangle) - mostly what unclet said.  The same drill bits that cut my panel's holes cut the plexi fine.   I just clamped it down to the CP, reverse drilled some pilot holes, clamped it down to scrap and alternated between reverse drilling and slower forward drilling.  And to cut the plexi to size, I used a plexi-cutting blade and a straight-edge.

[SavannahLion]

You do not want to drill right through the plexiglas with the same force as you do with wood but rather let the spinning drill bit melt the plexiglas away.  Once you feel like it has been spinning a bit and feel it melting you can apply a little more pressure to and then wait for the melting to continue.

Umm.. You do not want to melt the plexi at any point during the cutting, trimming or drilling process. When you heat acrylic and cause it to melt during cutting, you're increasing stress on the acrylic increasing the likelihood of stress crazing. Stress crazing is not always visible at first, but can manifest later during the plastics life. On an arcade cabinet, I imagine this would likely happen when the acrylic gets beat on one too many times during a round of DK with a bad Nintendo joystick. (With a fish tank, stress crazing manifests after you put your very expensive fish in and while you're at work. )

When you drill through acrylic, you want two tiny strands of plastic to come out of the drill channels, like what is pictured on this ultimate handyman site.

[amerish]

leave the paper on the plexi. Then put the plexi over your drilled top of the control panel. Turn on a flashlight and put it into the panel and you will see ever hole lit. Drill into the hole with a plunger bit on the router then switch to a flush trim bit to clean out the hole.

Works perfectly every time I have done it.

[Kajoq]

For cutting the plexi, making a sandwich with Wood | plexi | wood, and cutting slowly worked well for me.

Doing the holes, drill a small pilot hole first, A spade bit SHOULD work, but I used a holesaw bit and that worked perfect.  The hole cutting went much more smoothly than straight line cutting

[Malenko]

I drilled the holes for the screws that held the plexi to the panel, then I mounted the plexi to the control panel then used a dremel to slowly cut out the holes for the buttons. messy but its all the hardware i own :/


and it worked

[knave]

When I drilled Acrylic I used a small pilot hole and then used a slow to medium speed to drill out the hole.  I used a block of wood underneath.  Worked great.