Hello I am curious if anyone has attempted to cut lexan polycarbonate sheets with the maslow? I am needing to cut 1/8 in lexan sheets. If anyone has done this successfully at what speed do you suggest running the router and what feed rate to you suggest. Thank you in advance.
Matt
That sounds interesting. I wonder how smooth of a cut you can get?
If you can rout it by hand you should be able to rout it with CNC. I’m certain PC has been routed before by hand. If you google I’m sure you will find some speeds n feeds for PC as well.
Thank you
Lexan is pretty much like Acrylic.
I did a Project last week with 3/4" acrylic.
I use the Bosch 85611M 1/4 In. Solid Carbide Double Flute Acrylic Router Bit
https://smile.amazon.com/Bosch-85611M-Carbide-Double-Acrylic/dp/B000GYE1LE/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_rp_0_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000GYE1LE&pd_rd_r=06D8CYJJN6MTTEFKMMFE&pd_rd_w=EaFMg&pd_rd_wg=2GaG3&pf_rd_i=desktop-rhf&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=9d09a1d9-b780-4db3-9f0c-877cce080ab5&pf_rd_r=06D8CYJJN6MTTEFKMMFE&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhf&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=06D8CYJJN6MTTEFKMMFE
I had to carve 3/8" of the acrylic I did 2 passes at 0.1875
After cut the first piece I realize I could bump the feed rate from 20 to 30.
For the Router…Lower speed is best. I played with the router speed from 10 to 23K and 12K I had the best results
Here is the link for the project if you wanna check it out.
hope this help
Thank you!
Awesome thanks for all your help. Sign looks great by the way.
From my experience, I go for a low flute count so that the chips clear and a low spindle speed so that you don’t end up melting the material. Spiral end mill helps pull the chips out, but also makes work-holding a pain.
…Then, I go online and see half of the suggestions for the exact opposite (4-6 straight flute cutter at 15k+ rpm) so I really don’t know anymore.
actually polycarbonate is much easier to cut then acrylic in my experience. cutting acrylic smells horrible and tends to melt. Cutting Polycarbonate no smell at all and chips off easily.
single flute upcut bit is the only bit I would recommend 6mm or 4mm both work. I prefer 4mm. You are basially stuck with a low federate with maslow so you have to dial down the speed of the router, simply do one test cut and vary the speed of the router and see what speed appears to give the biggest chips. Clean out your shop vac ahead of time and use the shavings as fake snow, actually would look more like hail with clear polycarbonate, most of the stutf I cut is white.