Custom acrylic work

[Zack]

Anyone on here do custom acrylic work?

I'm looking for something like this in black acrylic. Regal can do it but they cannot do it same day and are quite a ways out of the way to go there, order it, and then come and pick it up.

18026

The holes I would perfer to be cut while I'm there to match up to my led unit

I may slightly modify the dimensions, I'm making a box out of this so I know that means some of the cuts will be shorter to accomadate for the edge.

[Andresm]

talk to Psycho , he makes alot of stuff for people

[Europhyllia]

Ace and Jack have wet acrylic and they have done some great work for me
http://wetacrylic.com/

[rrasco]

If I had a CNC router like I want this would be a breeze. Sadly I don't yet. I do have access to a small mill at work, but that would be a stretch.

[Zack]

Yeah, I wish I had a router too. I tried allied and they said they could cut it but it would be a two day process, they referred me to a place in san marcos they sell to and it was 3x as expensive for the same cuts..

[jcnkt_ellis]

I don't know if you have access to a circular saw or table saw but I had one acrylic place tell me that you can cut acrylic with one of those if you put the blade on backwards. As far as the holes go, a drill press, or even a drill with steady hands, and a set of spade bits will work. Have a board underneath and leave the paper on to prevent tear out with the holes.

[rrasco]

You can cut acrylic with a circular saw, it's not always pretty though. It sure would be tough to cut those circles though.

[Zack]

Yeah, i'm looking for it to look pretty good.. heck, it may look good enough when I'm done with the heatsink for a while till I can get out to regal.

[txav8r]

How big are the holes?

[Zack]

I don't have the leds with me to measure but the 8 holes will be about, maybe 2'' and the large will be 3''

[electricrcplane]

Tuan does some really nice work, I dabble and if you want to come over sometime we could get this cut up. Probably the biggest issues would be the holes. They sell a drill bit especially for acrylic, but you can also use a hole saw and then sand it.

[txav8r]

2 to 3" hole will need to be a hole saw. They don't sell acrylic bits that big.
If they did, you wouldn't want one!

[electricrcplane]

yeah, that was a given that there are no acrylic bits above 1" that I've ever seen.

[Sherita]

Use a hole saw for the circular cuts. If you take your time and don't push the bit too hard you can get very clean cuts that will look good with just a tiny bit of cleanup. As far as cutting acrylic using a table saw or circular saw, don't attempt it with a blade turned backwards. That heats the acrylic up, and you wind up with a nasty looking edge. You can buy a laminate blade that will make a nice looking cut as long as you take your time, this is what I use on both my table saw and my circular saw. If you use a clamped straight edge as a guide when cutting with a circular saw you will get a nice clean edge. A little flame polishing or a high speed buffing wheel will finish the edge out nicely.

[Zen Reef]

+1. Also the kick back potential is higher..really dangerous!!

[electricrcplane]

+1. Also the kick back potential is higher..really dangerous!!

Yes, I have both wood and laminate kickback on me and it really isn't pleasant and can hurt you pretty bad considering the material is traveling around 100mph when it does kick back. I can get a very nice edge with my circular saw but I use a laminate blade.

[ReefOne]

Do you already have the black acrylic? I just got back from Afghanistan and am about to start back up building stuff

-Ram

[Zack]

No, I don't have it yet. I may go with acrylic or possibly gut an old fixture.

[ReefOne]

Oh ok, well let me know, should have the shop setup next weekend or so.

[Zack]

Ok, well from what I'm looking at getting what size sheet would you reccomend?

[ReefOne]

I like to add 1/8"-1/4" in between pieces to add for routing and any small errors in cuts

-Ram

[Zack]

What size sheet would you reccomend I get?

[ReefOne]

Probably 36x14