Sand Lexan?

[solowCX]

Just a quick question about lexan. Is it possible to sand the edge of a piece of it to make it a little smaller, or do you actually need to cut it? If you can do it, will the edge look pretty bad?

[Franco B]

Depends how much you need to take off and the thickness of the material. If its more than 0.5-1mm (~1/32") you will be sanding for a long time and you may not get an straight/even edge. Your best bet would be to route the excess off.

If you want a good finish on the edge you want to polish the edge using emery paper up to about 1500-2000 grit and then use something like the novus 3 stage polishing system for a gleaming finish.

You can also flame polish certain plastics, im not sure about Lexan though but I imagine you would be able to.

[shardian]

The belt sander has been my friend on multiple occassions with lexan and plexi. The edge will of course have a sanded finish instead of a clear finish. I've never had an exposed edge on the stuff I sand, so don't know how much effort would be involved in polishing it back to clear.

[Franco B]

I had not thought about a belt sander, that would also do the trick. I think you would get better results routing though if that is an option to you.

As for polishing, Lexan is polycarbonate which is relatively soft and would be fairly easy to polish.

[solowCX]

It is going to be a pretty small amount of sanding I believe. Basically I am going to have the lexan coming at an angle against a piece of wood and wanted to sand it down to match. Sounds like it shouldn't be that big of deal though, so thanks for the help!

[shardian]

You mean a beveled edge?

If that's the case, a 45 degree router bit is the best tool for the job.

[solowCX]

Excuse the crude drawing, but this is essentially what I am trying to do. As you can see, if the lexan were not to be cut or sanded it would either have to extend a little into the wood or would not reach all the way to the bottom. I would like to basically just trim the edge so it matches the angle of the wood.

[Sardu]

I've sanded Lexan edge with a belt sander to it was flush with the wood in was layed on and it worked nicely.

It was a 1/8" thick piece.

[Pixelhugger]

I've sanded acrylic with a belt sander to angle the edge. Worked perfectly on 1/4" material.

[fjl]

I used a flush trim bit to match the control panel then used a 1/8" roundover bit to remove the hard edge. Came out really nice.