Quick tip for you as someone that has worked with acrylic for many many years, instead of using a deburing tool, try using a sharp 90° edge and dragging it at a slight angle across the edge/corner of your material(think like the sharp edge of a starrett 6" rule(or sharper lol). It won't do that "digging" that can sometimes happen with a sharp blade/hook/deburring tool, and it'll still leave you with a very nice deburred edge.
Good to know! thanks! One of the things I didn't explain well. is that I use the deburring tool specifically for deburring the stock before machining. I've been using a scalpel when I need to deburr the final part, but as you mentioned, as soon as the blade starts to get dull at all, it "digs in". I'll try your method on my next parts.
I use a utility knife blade and drag it backwards, not quite 90 to the stock. Shears off any fuzz without cutting into the stock and keeps working as the blade dulls.
It definitely works, and is probably better in a higher production environment, but I don't like it for a few reasons. It's not as easy to get parts flat, it's not as good as handling coolant and heat, it's also less rigid. And for clear acrylic you would probably still want tape, so that you can get the adhesive off afterwards. Probably the best option for bigger parts though.
Great video! I have had much better experience overall with cast acrylic than extruded. Specifically with laser engraving and cutting quality. Also FYI, that blue masked acrylic looks very similar to the extruded acrylic we used to get at work. The cast acrylic we get from mcmaster is always brown paper masked and clearly labeled on the masking.
If you need to cut acrylic on a table saw, I have found that having the blade with 5% or less stick out above material cuts the cleanest with minimal chipping.
Have you ever thought about getting a vacuum plate setup? It would make sense if youre doing larger quantities because the loading unloading time is so much quicker,but i can see why you do it that way for small batches. I used to machine thin carbon 1mm and polycarbonate on a TM 3P with a double sided tape made by Tesa, very expensive but it wouldnt get tangled in the cutter, always wanted a vacuum chuck but the company wouldnt invest, so id be peeling off tape while the machine ran the next batch 😂
I've definitely considered it. Glue drying can be a real bottleneck in my shop at times. I've always been a little afraid of vacuum working with how small my parts are. These ones are relatively large, and they were only ~2-3 square inches each. that's like 40 lbs of holding force max? Honestly I just don't know very much about vacuum working, so I've never really seriously considered it. I'm moving to a pallet system soon, that'll let me glue parts outside of the machine, which will basically cure my glue time issues.
@@AudacityMicro One thing I often do here, especially with how cheap material is relative to the parts youa re making at that scale, is just oversize your stock relative to the piece you are working.. Bonus points if it is greater than quantity 1, you just duplicate the aprt 4x, 9x, etc and cut them all as one large sheet. On my vacuum chuck I can pretty reliably onion skin the last ~0.005" or so without losing vacuum. For a relative "how much can I cut", with a standard ~37 helix YG1 1/4" endmill, I was doing about 30-40IPM, 0.1" DOC, 50% WOC on an aluminum part that measured ~4"x6" on a vacuum chuck. I pushed it about 20% harder and broke it loose. If you used a downcut bit you could go further with it. Plastics should easily be able to do 3-4x that. If you have any questions on this, feel free to reach out and I can walk you through my process.
@@AudacityMicro we use Haas GR-510's at my shop, all with vacuum tables. We would cut thousands of parts like that out a full sheet sometimes. That process looks painful, and even if it's only one or two parts it's still going on one of the big routers vs over to the VF2's.
I've been telling all these super glue guys that same thing, but no one listens. The fumes from the glue could even cloud the acrylic. I think they must be under the impression they have to buy an expensive system or are just scared to try something new.
I just don't understand how it could possibly hold a part that's less than a few square inches. Especially one that needs a bunch of holes and stuff in it. I fully admit my ignorance here, but it just sounds like it 1) would take longer to setup, and 2) be more likely to throw the material.
One thing to watch out for is the quite big tolerance on the thickness acrylic comes in. 10% +0.5mm …have not seen that extreme deviations but 0.2 to 0.5mm over quite small distances (200mm ish) is totally normal. XT is slightly better in that regard (might be the only reason to chose it over GS/cast) Ceramic noga blades & scrapers are great for plastics.
Very odd to me that you've seen IPA cause crazing in acrylic, the place I work at exclusively uses it for that... Also some coolant types can cause crazing in some plastics and not others. I very often use Bron/IPG double-stick tapes for short runtime parts (
We typically use ethyl alcohol on acrylic without much issue. Isopropyl (aka rubbing alcohol) is bad stuff though. You can order non denatured ethyl alcohol pretty easily and suggest you get some and give it a try on some scrap.
@@AudacityMicro isopropyl is really the issue and even then only on stuff with high internal stress. Ethanol aka the stuff you drink isn’t really a concern. Same with heptane. My client uses both on the acrylic optical lenses they make out of PMMA and SAN. PMMA is the most common flavor of cast acrylic on the market. That being said, we are talking about wiping optical quality acrylic with moistened lens grade wipes, not soaking it over night or anything.
@@AudacityMicro to be clear, soapy water is of course acceptable also but not well suited for optical purposes unless you use RO/DI water with super special soaps that leave no residue but I don’t think that’s a concern for non optical applications. One thing to note is that acrylic will soak water up like a sponge. We had issues molding it because of all the absorbed water it had from the air. It would puff up like GreatStuff foam when heated unless we put it a vacuum drying oven overnight to dry it out prior to molding. That water can cause some swelling too but if you are +/- 3 thou on small parts that likely won’t be enough to through you out of spec.
@@AudacityMicro other tips on working with plastics in general: use a 3d printer to make custom nozzles for your shop vac and a mag base to suck up chips before they can be recut and ruin surface finish. If you need to take multiple depth passes, don’t ramp down, plunge straight down to your next Z height off to the side on in an area of stock that will be removed, then horizontal ramp into the part.
Make stock has a bigger selection of cast acrylic (especially in colora) and is several times cheaper per square foot. Thickness tolerance may be +6%/ -25% though. For 1/8" you can step up to 3/16 for 25%more and machine to thickness but above that you only have 1/4 and 1/2". But they have both clear and opaque colors as well as decorative ones. Aimed at laser cutting market, which also prefers cast acrylic over extruded.
I seriously need to start buying stock in superglue and blue tape. Would you like me to show you how to make a vacuum plate and venturi? Make that venturi once, and you can use it again and again. Or infinity tools has them for $119
@adityasakhakusuma2507 I have a pretty high power laser, with a high pressure air blast, and really good ventilation. Cuts fine on my machine, but I'm sure it could be a problem on different setups.
Two reasons 1) accuracy. Most of my parts Are +/-.003" or tighter, and my laser just isn't that accurate. 2) sometimes you need things like pockets that don't go all the way through the part. Lasers don't really do that. Could this part have been designers in a way that I could be made on a cheap laser? Probably. But generally my customers don't really care that much about money. They just want the parts to work the first time, and they want them fast.
@@AudacityMicro ahhhh yes, great points, especially the pockets! :) Thanks for the reply, love you videos, newly subscribed and a desktop cnc owner! Looking forward to learning lots from you.
Quick tip for you as someone that has worked with acrylic for many many years, instead of using a deburing tool, try using a sharp 90° edge and dragging it at a slight angle across the edge/corner of your material(think like the sharp edge of a starrett 6" rule(or sharper lol). It won't do that "digging" that can sometimes happen with a sharp blade/hook/deburring tool, and it'll still leave you with a very nice deburred edge.
Good to know! thanks!
One of the things I didn't explain well. is that I use the deburring tool specifically for deburring the stock before machining. I've been using a scalpel when I need to deburr the final part, but as you mentioned, as soon as the blade starts to get dull at all, it "digs in". I'll try your method on my next parts.
I use a utility knife blade and drag it backwards, not quite 90 to the stock. Shears off any fuzz without cutting into the stock and keeps working as the blade dulls.
I drag a razor blade on the corner
Great stuff like always AJ, you’re an absolute rockstar for sharing this info!
🙂
Awesome video! 😁 tutorials are your jam. 😊
This is a good video and a great reference for anyone who works with acrylic and alike.
Thanks a bunch for the info.
Thanks! I'm glad you found it useful!
What are your thoughts on good thin double sided tape?
It definitely works, and is probably better in a higher production environment, but I don't like it for a few reasons. It's not as easy to get parts flat, it's not as good as handling coolant and heat, it's also less rigid. And for clear acrylic you would probably still want tape, so that you can get the adhesive off afterwards.
Probably the best option for bigger parts though.
Oh, and it'll gum up your tools if you cut into it. Super glue doesn't do that.
@@AudacityMicro Thank you for the reply's. Out of curiosity have you seen or tried flame polishing after milling?
Yes and no 😅. I have tried it, but I've never gotten a good process sorted. I am more likely to scrap the part than improve it. I think I'm impatient.
Chemical vapor polishing is the way to go. Takes literal seconds and you never risk scrapping parts
Great video! I have had much better experience overall with cast acrylic than extruded. Specifically with laser engraving and cutting quality. Also FYI, that blue masked acrylic looks very similar to the extruded acrylic we used to get at work. The cast acrylic we get from mcmaster is always brown paper masked and clearly labeled on the masking.
If you need to cut acrylic on a table saw, I have found that having the blade with 5% or less stick out above material cuts the cleanest with minimal chipping.
Have you ever thought about getting a vacuum plate setup? It would make sense if youre doing larger quantities because the loading unloading time is so much quicker,but i can see why you do it that way for small batches. I used to machine thin carbon 1mm and polycarbonate on a TM 3P with a double sided tape made by Tesa, very expensive but it wouldnt get tangled in the cutter, always wanted a vacuum chuck but the company wouldnt invest, so id be peeling off tape while the machine ran the next batch 😂
I've definitely considered it. Glue drying can be a real bottleneck in my shop at times. I've always been a little afraid of vacuum working with how small my parts are. These ones are relatively large, and they were only ~2-3 square inches each. that's like 40 lbs of holding force max?
Honestly I just don't know very much about vacuum working, so I've never really seriously considered it. I'm moving to a pallet system soon, that'll let me glue parts outside of the machine, which will basically cure my glue time issues.
@@AudacityMicro One thing I often do here, especially with how cheap material is relative to the parts youa re making at that scale, is just oversize your stock relative to the piece you are working.. Bonus points if it is greater than quantity 1, you just duplicate the aprt 4x, 9x, etc and cut them all as one large sheet. On my vacuum chuck I can pretty reliably onion skin the last ~0.005" or so without losing vacuum.
For a relative "how much can I cut", with a standard ~37 helix YG1 1/4" endmill, I was doing about 30-40IPM, 0.1" DOC, 50% WOC on an aluminum part that measured ~4"x6" on a vacuum chuck. I pushed it about 20% harder and broke it loose. If you used a downcut bit you could go further with it. Plastics should easily be able to do 3-4x that.
If you have any questions on this, feel free to reach out and I can walk you through my process.
@@AudacityMicro we use Haas GR-510's at my shop, all with vacuum tables. We would cut thousands of parts like that out a full sheet sometimes. That process looks painful, and even if it's only one or two parts it's still going on one of the big routers vs over to the VF2's.
I've been telling all these super glue guys that same thing, but no one listens.
The fumes from the glue could even cloud the acrylic.
I think they must be under the impression they have to buy an expensive system or are just scared to try something new.
I just don't understand how it could possibly hold a part that's less than a few square inches. Especially one that needs a bunch of holes and stuff in it. I fully admit my ignorance here, but it just sounds like it 1) would take longer to setup, and 2) be more likely to throw the material.
One thing to watch out for is the quite big tolerance on the thickness acrylic comes in. 10% +0.5mm …have not seen that extreme deviations but 0.2 to 0.5mm over quite small distances (200mm ish) is totally normal. XT is slightly better in that regard (might be the only reason to chose it over GS/cast)
Ceramic noga blades & scrapers are great for plastics.
Good point, at least here if you order imperial sizing you'll get the closest metric sheet.
Very odd to me that you've seen IPA cause crazing in acrylic, the place I work at exclusively uses it for that... Also some coolant types can cause crazing in some plastics and not others. I very often use Bron/IPG double-stick tapes for short runtime parts (
We typically use ethyl alcohol on acrylic without much issue. Isopropyl (aka rubbing alcohol) is bad stuff though. You can order non denatured ethyl alcohol pretty easily and suggest you get some and give it a try on some scrap.
Personally I would stay away from all alcohols. The problem is that the damage can be done now, but not be apparent for months.
@@AudacityMicro isopropyl is really the issue and even then only on stuff with high internal stress. Ethanol aka the stuff you drink isn’t really a concern. Same with heptane. My client uses both on the acrylic optical lenses they make out of PMMA and SAN. PMMA is the most common flavor of cast acrylic on the market. That being said, we are talking about wiping optical quality acrylic with moistened lens grade wipes, not soaking it over night or anything.
Ok! That is good to know! It would certainly be nice to have a few ways of cleaning it if I ever need to in the future
@@AudacityMicro to be clear, soapy water is of course acceptable also but not well suited for optical purposes unless you use RO/DI water with super special soaps that leave no residue but I don’t think that’s a concern for non optical applications. One thing to note is that acrylic will soak water up like a sponge. We had issues molding it because of all the absorbed water it had from the air. It would puff up like GreatStuff foam when heated unless we put it a vacuum drying oven overnight to dry it out prior to molding. That water can cause some swelling too but if you are +/- 3 thou on small parts that likely won’t be enough to through you out of spec.
@@AudacityMicro other tips on working with plastics in general: use a 3d printer to make custom nozzles for your shop vac and a mag base to suck up chips before they can be recut and ruin surface finish. If you need to take multiple depth passes, don’t ramp down, plunge straight down to your next Z height off to the side on in an area of stock that will be removed, then horizontal ramp into the part.
You've got to add some stabilizing gussets to that work bench :-)
Oooor maybe to cup on top of the box, on top of a block of steel, on top of my bench, that I set my camera on 😅.
......it seemed stable at the time
Make stock has a bigger selection of cast acrylic (especially in colora) and is several times cheaper per square foot. Thickness tolerance may be +6%/ -25% though. For 1/8" you can step up to 3/16 for 25%more and machine to thickness but above that you only have 1/4 and 1/2". But they have both clear and opaque colors as well as decorative ones. Aimed at laser cutting market, which also prefers cast acrylic over extruded.
Good to know!
I seriously need to start buying stock in superglue and blue tape.
Would you like me to show you how to make a vacuum plate and venturi?
Make that venturi once, and you can use it again and again. Or infinity tools has them for $119
I have both an off the shelf venturi, and a regular plug-in vacuum pump 😬
you laser cut polycarbonate too?
I do. I have been told that it can be problematic, but at least with the thin stuff my laser goes right through it.
@@AudacityMicro i did that, but the fume and smoke was really toxic and it damage all the mirror and lense of the laser, it made it really blurry
@adityasakhakusuma2507 I have a pretty high power laser, with a high pressure air blast, and really good ventilation. Cuts fine on my machine, but I'm sure it could be a problem on different setups.
@@AudacityMicro did it leave burnt edge? now i fell like im doing it wrong
nope, cuts pretty cleanly. What laser do you have?
can I ask a possible dumb question? why don't you just use that overkill laser to cut the parts??
Two reasons 1) accuracy. Most of my parts Are +/-.003" or tighter, and my laser just isn't that accurate. 2) sometimes you need things like pockets that don't go all the way through the part. Lasers don't really do that.
Could this part have been designers in a way that I could be made on a cheap laser? Probably. But generally my customers don't really care that much about money. They just want the parts to work the first time, and they want them fast.
@@AudacityMicro ahhhh yes, great points, especially the pockets! :) Thanks for the reply, love you videos, newly subscribed and a desktop cnc owner! Looking forward to learning lots from you.
Thanks! 🙂
What's in that big ass crate by your garage door?!?
Next video 😁
(But it's a new bandsaw)
Spoilers 😊
So only design parts with polycarbonate instead of acrylic, got it.
I would most certainly not complain 🙂