Cutting Acrylic

[Utah-Jay]

Please school me on the best way to cut acrylic

I initially used an air compressor powered jigsaw, but it was melting the edges a bit, …… then I tried the scoring method which was an epic FAIL.

Please HELP

[Mark Goldberg]

A cut off wheel on a die grinder works well. Mark

[TimTall]

I scored it with a drywall knife with the break-away blades. I had a few slips but managed to keep it clean. I used masking tape for protection so I could put the straight edge on the good part. This way, if the blade slipped, it would hit the area that I was cutting off anyway. I clamped the straight edge down so I didn't have to worry about it moving.

Start off slowly so you can get a nice straight line for the blade to follow. It took quite a while to get through. Keep the blades fresh and have plenty on hand. It's tough stuff and it eats the blades up.

[Nev]

What Mark said. Way too easy, no breakages. You can do corners too. Then just gently run a file along the edges to tidy it up.

[Lee]

Yep. What Mark and Nev said. I use a Harbor Freight 3" pneumatic cutoff tool. Cheap and works great.
Lee

[Mark Dickens]

I found the die grinder a little too energetic and hard to control when I cut my RV-8 canopy. I'm a Dremel guy. I found a small metal cutting wheel with small teeth and that worked for me

[rv8bldr]

I used an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel (3/64" wheel for metal). I have done my rear passenger windows like this and had no issues. I cleaned up the edges with a fine file and a bit of sandpaper.

[Light&Sweet]

Sounds like the need is for detail cuts in curves. Long straight cuts are great on a table saw.

[Utah-Jay]

Sounds like the need is for detail cuts in curves. Long straight cuts are great on a table saw.

The table saw I have access to is not able to make a 17” wide cut.

I put a new blade in the pneumatic jigsaw and the cutting was much easier and I got the results I needed