Has anyone tried cutting acrylic ? any tips that might come in handy ? @EastBaySource
Not on the Maslow, but on the desktop-cnc.
First is the source/manufacture of the Acrylic,
Extruded is cheaper and might give more trouble on melting back, Cell cast acrylic is higher quality that I am using, and the best speeds and feeds on the desktop-cnc are determined by nice āsnowflakesā coming of the bit to take the heat away.
I have no idea, but with the slow speed of the Maslow and the far to high speeds of a router (changed to spindle for speed control) , I would start from low Z-depth and look how the chips are. If they are āsnowflakesā and not melting, go ahead.
On the desktop-cnc Iām using 3.175 mm bit quite fast and go down on acrylic at a bit half of the bit diameter.
Honestly, on a slow machine like the Maslow I donāt know how I would approach this.
Maybe creating a .nc with 10 small cuts at different depths and speed and going for the best āsnowflakeā,
Kind regards, Gero
3 Likes
Thanks for the feedback, I bought the machine and will be here in a couple of days Iāll try and come back with an answer. Hope is a fine one
1 Like
I recently did this:
- 10k rpm
- 1/8" double flute up cut
- Default feed rate from web control
- 1/8" material, single pass
No chips, ended up with a melty blob on my bit but it worked well enough for the part to be usable. My recommendations:
- Get a single flute bit
- Try to increase feed rate
Now that Iām thinking about it it also might not be too hard to make an adapter for a dremel tool. Those handle smaller bits and can do much lower RPMs. That might be a good solution for plastics.
2 Likes
Please try the following settings
-
30 in/min
-
10.000 RPM
-
1/2 Bit diameter depth per pass
-
Follow Gero recommendations
Gab
cast acrylic is the easiest to cut. Iāve never had much luck with extruded acrylic and it smells horrible too when it melts.
1 Like
great, my machine is coming is this week. next week Iāll have an answer
1 Like