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Tips on drilling and cutting plexiglass for CP

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y2k600f4:
I am currently trying to complete my CP and have come to the step where I need to cut and drill out 1/8" plexiglass for my control panel overlay. I need to cut the outline of the CP (not square) along with all the button holes, joystick holes and trackball hole. I am thinking this is going to take some time !! Any suggestions and tips would greatly be appreciated. I planned on scoring the outline with an exacto knife than snapping the general shape. Rounding the edges and corners with a dremel. For the holes I was going to either drill or use a hole saw (both smaller than the holes) and finish each hole by hand with a dremel. If that is the way to go, I am not sure what bit to use to "grind" the plexiglass so I don't get any chips. Thanks !

lanman31337:
I cut my marquee with a jigsaw - i used a metal blade, it's 24 tpi.  as long as you keep the speeds down you'll have no problems chipping.  I used my dremel to cut out my cpo - it's a funky looking bit with long flutes - worked like a champ.

Teknique:
I have lexan as my CP top so its much less fragile, but I drilled out my button holes with a large drill bit (very slowly to avoid cracking the lexan) The drill bit had to be just large enough to fit the ballbearing guide of a laminate cutting bit through the hole.  I then used my router with laminate bit  to make perfect circles for trackball, spinner , buttons, etc. by using the predrilled holes of the cp as my guides.     I also used the laminate cutting bit to trim the edges of the lexan around the cp.  Before trimming the edges, secure the overlay by putting in 6 or so buttons through the plexi and wood so the plexi does not move on you.


Tek    

ChadTower:

Scroll saw will work well if you have one.

unclet:
I cut plexiglass for my control panel top.  I used a scroll saw blade (made for cutting through plastics) to cut the outline of my control panel top.   I used a standard 1-1/8" wood bit to cut out the holes (make sure the holes are cut 90 degrees so the actual pushbuttons will fit into them straight).   I went real slow and it worked real well.

I was worried about cracking as well, so I sandwiched my plexiglass between two 3/4" MDF pieces of wood before cutting.   Basically, I made my control panel top out of 3/4" MDF and cut/drilled everything out of it.     To set up for cutting my plexiglass, I placed spare 3/4" MDF board on my workbench (ie: bottom piece), then placed the plexiglass on that and taped the plexiglass down which a lot of blue painter's tape all the way around to make sure it would not move at all.  I then placed my 3/4" MDF control panel top (which already had all the holes, etc... cut in it) on top.   I then clamped both MDF (bottom and top) together (with the plexi in the middle).   I made sure to clamp to the left and right side of where I was going to cut/drill so there was always a nice firm "sandwich" created.    Finally I used my top control panel MDF panel as a guide to cutting out the holes and trackball space, etc...    It was nice since the button holes already drilled out of the top MDF piece guided the drill bit correctly into the plexiglass.  Basically, it made sure the drill bit was cutting into the plexi at a 90 degree angle.  The bottom piece of MDF was basically scrap and was thrown away when i was done.

The more you speed up, the more chance of cracking.   I would try to get spare piece of plexiglass to practice on.  Once you do it, you will understand what needs to happen in order to cut nicely.

I believe the idea with cutting plexiglass (or lexan) is that you really do not want to "cut" right through the plastic as if it were wood (ie: do not push your scroll saw blade through the plastic with a lot of force).  Instead you want the moving blade (or drill bit) to heat up the plastic befoer trying to apply more pressure to make it cut through.   For example, cutting a 1-1/8" hole for a button you would not just place your drill bit at the desired location and start pressing down and drilling right through the plastic, but rather you would allow the little point of the drill bit to spin in place a bit, thus heating up the plastic .  You would then push down until more of the drill bit goes through the plastic and then wait for more of the plastic to heat up a bit and then continuing pushing down, etc, etc .... until you are all the way through.

** Plexiglass and lexan usually come with a thin protective film applied to it to keep it from getting scratched when it is stored with a bunch of other pieces.   I would "highly recommend" you keep this protective film on the plexiglass until you are done cutting everything.    It obviously will protect your plexiglass when your cutting but it also seems to reduce (a bit) the amount of cracking which might occur (if any). 


So to recap:

1) Practice on some scrap first (if possible).
2) keep protective film on plexiglass
3) sandwich plexiglass between your true control panel top and some scrap to use as a guide
4) Cut/drill slowly so plexiglass melts as it cuts




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