Main > Main Forum
Acrylic drilling help
vast:
I need some real pointers / tips on drilling my acrylic cover for my CP. I've probably tried to do it 7 times now and it either results in cracked plastic when drilling the mounting holes, or the holes for the sicks and buttons don't match...
I've got a metal CP and have tried clamping the 2 together and drawing out the holes, sometimes they fit, and then the plastic cracks when drilling the mounting holes. I'm quite close to giving up on the idea of an overlay :banghead:
SNAAKE:
drill backward. it melts the plexiglass. use a variable drill and go slow.
or just get lexan/lucite tuff. you can treat that as wood. drill however you want. lexan dont crack.
this dude here will cut it to size for you.
http://stores.ebay.com/POP-DISPLAYS/Lexan-Polycarbonate-Clear-/_i.html?_fsub=4957576&_sid=15241991&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
(this is so old lol)
Nephasth:
--- Quote from: SNAAKE on October 06, 2011, 06:20:22 pm ---or just get lexan
--- End quote ---
This. It drills like butter! :D
And always drill a pilot hole for your larger holes.
MonMotha:
For thin stuff, I've had pretty good luck using a spade bit to effectively score the edge of the hole from both sides (stop before the bit would start to remove the material from the center area), then popping the cutout piece out. This is similar to the method used when doing straight cuts where you score and snap, except you can't really bend the entire sheet to snap it.
For thicker stuff, try slow to medium speed and very slow feed with a conventional bit. A drill press may be useful to keep things straight and control feed speed, but you want to place almost no pressure on the material at all. I've not tried the "melt the material" technique described above but it might work. I'm guessing it'll ruin the drill bit, but eh.
And yeah, Lexan is so much easier to work with than acrylic. It'll scratch a bit worse, but otherwise it will usually hold up better during normal use, too. Most of the commercial designs I've seen use Lexan for control panel overlays.
opt2not:
Cleanest way (and practically fool proof) is to drill the desired sized hole into a piece of wood as a template, then drill a pilot hole into your acrylic/lexan/plexi, then use your router and trim bit to widen that hole using the template.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version