# Can you route perspex/Plexiglass



## RussianRouter

Never tried this before on the router table,basically I want a clean edge on cut perspex to size but I'm making a couple of router straight edge guides that are 4' long and I might make a few jigs with the left overs of the perspex.

I have a few cheap straight router bits and not bothered about them becoming blunt providing they cut a neat straight edge.

So has anyone attempted to cut perspex on the router table?

Any pitfalls to watch out for,tips.

Thanks.


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## Eric The Viking

RussianRouter":3m6qdfwq said:


> Never tried this before on the router table,basically I want a clean edge on cut perspex to size but I'm making a couple of router straight edge guides that are 4' long and I might make a few jigs with the left overs of the perspex.
> 
> I have a few cheap straight router bits and not bothered about them becoming blunt providing they cut a neat straight edge.
> 
> So has anyone attempted to cut perspex on the router table?
> 
> Any pitfalls to watch out for,tips.
> 
> Thanks.



Melting it! 

Seriously, you need a slow speed and good extraction. I've done it, but it wasn't fun. Also, starting off requires enormous care, otherwise you break pieces off the edge. It doesn't seem to tearout at the end quite as badly though. You can get a mirror finish afterwards with Brasso (and a bit of elbow grease) - it depends on the shape you're cutting. I tried using a jigsaw once, only to have the cut close up again behind the blade. If you let the cutter heat up you'll have a gooey mess.

It's also horribly smelly - I do it out of doors if I can, as the chemicals given off cause me headaches.


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## Paul Chapman

I routed this perspex dovetail marker. Had it screwed down to a piece of MDF and used a slow speed, taking light cuts with a 1/4" cutter. Worked OK  







You can also plane it using a very sharp block plane - I planed the sides of the dovetail marker.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## RussianRouter

Thanks Guys,will give a go now and see how we get on?

To cut it the length I used a verry sharp point scribe ie a nail hole punch grinded to a sharp tip,I then scribed the mark down the length of perspex a couple of times on both sides and snapped it clean,poblem is it don't leave a flat edge hence the need to route one.

I'm told that if you use one of those trend spiral bits it makes the job much easier?

ccasion5:


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## Benchwayze

I found that High-speed steel, engineering end mills made a good job, and seemed to cut better.

These are not 'shanked'. I.e, a 3/8" cutter is 3/8" diameter all the way along! 

HTH
John


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## RussianRouter

Here's what I found....

Without using the guide fence it was definatly a NoNo situation as it just makes the perspex go where you don't want it to go ie across the otherside of the room #-o 

So to get a straight edge one must follow these rules...

Minimum speed.
Use the backfence for guidance as you would for nomal wood routing.
Cutter sticking out for the minimum cuts ie 1 or 2 pases.


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## Digit

I've routed it up to 2 inches thick on a Wadkin router and 5/8 thick by hand for aircraft canopies and I will add one point to those already made. Use a small dia cutter, along with your router's slowest speed this reduces the linear speed of the cutting edge and helps prevent melting. 

Roy.


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## Lons

I used to distribute the stuff a number of years ago. ICI produced standard “cast” acrylic, (Perspex brand) as well as an extruded acrylic. Properties differs between the two and the layman would have difficulty identifying unless the protective covering was intact. As an aside, only one side is normally uv stabilised and the covering says which. Install the wrong way up outside and it will degrade.

To confuse matters, there is also polycarbonate as well as clear styrene and PVC, a number of different manufacturers and loads of variety in colours and sizes / tubes / rods thicknesses etc.

In very simple terms:
Acrylic (cast) - very good quality and clarity, strong but hard and brittle
Acrylic (extruded) - not as glass clear, slightly softer and more flexible
Polycarbonate – clear, flexible,very strong, quite soft. (Also a version with a hardened surface to overcome that). Higher softening point.
Styrene – clear, very hard, very brittle, standard is not uv stabilised and tends to yellow.
PVC – clear with a tinge, soft, flexible and stong.

All can be worked with appropriate machinery e.g. Tablesaw / wallsaw fine crosscut blade pref with neg rake. Routers as slow a speed as poss and sharp, small dia, mutifluted cutters. Jigsaw / bandsaw – fine blade, slow cut or will melt. And of course hand tools.

A good way to flat an edge is to clamp between timbers and use a fine flat file** - then abrasives after which it can be hand polished, felt or mop wheel finished or get a glass clear edge by slowly playing a fine blowtorch along it.
(**I made a useful "tool" using a 500mm length of 50mm x 25mm flat hardwood to which I glued medium abrasive to one side and fine to the other)

Can be line bent with a simple single heater bar or more crudely clamped up, heated with a heatgun, bent to shape and held until cool. Can also be heated in an oven, edge clamped to a former and pressed or blown into a shape. (Majority of rooflights are made thus).

If mechanically fixed then holes should be oversize and no closer to the edge than the hole dia and fixings not over tightened. It can also be threaded using std taps an dies.

Advice and ideas should be available on websites. Try ICI semi-finished plastics or Rhom

Bob


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## Benchwayze

Just thought. 

There are cutters made for the plastic window-frame industry especially. They too might be useful for sheet plastics. 

John


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## RussianRouter

Hi Paul

When you said you screwed a piece of perspex to the laminate did you use this as a guide to stop the perspex frrom shattering?

I'm faced with a problem and that problem is the table insert rings,I can cut them out as circles with the router but once the circles are cut how would you cut an inner circle out of the rings?.


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## ferret

you cut the inner circle first remember inside go anti clockwise and the outside go clockwise better finish old engravers trick
ferret


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## RussianRouter

Hi Ferret

But if we cut the inner circle first then we lose the center pivot of the circle? how do we overcome that?


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## ferret

what size are you wanting is the idea that they fit into each other or is it just to allow the router to come through the table
ferret


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## Benchwayze

George:

When I was thinking of making a router table, I had the idea that I would make a number of plates each with an aperture in them to cover the various bit diameters. 

I reckoned four plates of different apertures would cover most sizes. These plates would all fit into one main opening in the table. To get them all concentric, I was going to use a centre point (Home-made in the router.) to mark for the circle cutter. 

But I didn't make a purpose built table in the end. I seem to use my router hand-held for most things I do, so my 'router table', is just a Trend (The Tufnol one). I use this with the Trend Routerack, whenever I do want to use a router upside down. Which as I said isn't often. I certainly wouldn't raise panels on it because my biggest router isn't heavy-duty enough! 

John :wink:


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## Paul Chapman

RussianRouter":1egah5n9 said:


> When you said you screwed a piece of perspex to the laminate did you use this as a guide to stop the perspex frrom shattering?



I screwed the perspex to a piece of MDF on which I had marked out the shape I wanted to cut, several times life-size. I then placed a straight edge on the marks and used this to guide the router. I used a large, square base on the router 






Hope that's clear :? 

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## RussianRouter

Ok,I have it sussed....If I cut the main circle out first ie outer diameter then I can cut the inner circle out with this....
http://www.holepro.com/img/HH-200.jpg


Cheaper on Ebay...although material used might be naff?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-New-Hole-Saw-Ki ... 2c4d5a3f36


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## RussianRouter

> what size are you wanting is the idea that they fit into each other or is it just to allow the router to come through the table



Hi Feret

The same type of rings in the "Router Table Insert" thread.

But I have it covered now as the link to the cutter I posted does Ally,plastics,and brass sheeting

Cheers.


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## Lons

RussianRouter":pp7288by said:


> Hi Paul
> 
> When you said you screwed a piece of perspex to the laminate did you use this as a guide to stop the perspex frrom shattering?
> 
> I'm faced with a problem and that problem is the table insert rings,I can cut them out as circles with the router but once the circles are cut how would you cut an inner circle out of the rings?.



You can also cut the inner circle using a holesaw and drill. Works very well if you cut carefully and the edge is easily cleaned up with abrasive or better, with a deburrer tool. http://www.toolstation.com/documents/se ... hstr=50764


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## ferret

what sort of money do these rings go for how many in a set what sort of sizes this is something i can cut easiely in perspex or better still polycarbonate which is unbreakable anybody interested ? not trying to drum up bussiness but are we not on here to help others
ferret


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## RussianRouter

Whats all this fuss about cutting perspex with a router? piece a cake if you take it in 3 passes with the lowest speed.

Happy as Larry
:wink:


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