Thread: Making translucent scales

Lancer was 100 percent right about the Dremel melting the plastic. I put the Dremel on 1 and slowly lowered it into the plexiglass, and it made a nice hole with a blob of plastic fused to it.

Dang, I was hoping this material would be easy for me to work with simple tools.

So it seems my options are:
1. Hand sawing it with a jig saw (is this the same as a coping saw?)
2. Using a power grinder, which I don't have right now
3. Getting it cut by some kind of specialty shop

Are there any other ways of cutting this stuff that I might be overlooking? Would a Dremel grinder bit work for shaping it? How do you avoid melting it on a power grinder in the first place?

Thanks for the help,
Josh

OK a couple of options...

flex extention shaft on the dremel + water bath = cool clean cutting + mess + shrotened life of shaft (DO NOT attempt this indoors... dont ask)

coping saw: you will need to clamp the pelxiglass firmly and dever work more than 1/2" away from the clamped section (or the plexiglass could crack)

fine tooth hacksaw blade: this will need to be clamped too.

Scroll saw: slowest speed and only cutting on the downward stroke, TAKE YOUR TIME!

Unfortunately I am yet to find a rapid, mechanised, method of production that DOES NOT require the application of some form of coolant when working on plexiglass.

Josh, a coping saw is a hand saw, a jigsaw is a power tool. Jigsaw is not going to be ideal- too big to allow you to see what you're doing even if it could be slowed down enough.

Based on my woodworking experiance I would saw the only likely powered tool is going to be a quality scroll saw with a slow variable speed option. Dewalt and Delta make good ones with low speed.

I would suggest double tooth blades - they have 2 teeth together then skip a tooth.
Think of these as very thin wood for scroll work and most of the techniques will apply and should work.

You also need a really slow buffer for plastics- couple hundred RPM- dremel is in the thousands. How about trying a soft buff wheel in a variable speed hand drill?
That's the recomended for refinishing plastic and acrylic headlights, windshields, aircraft canopys, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. After a couple more experiments last night, I've decided to lay off on this project for a while.

I read online that you could cut Lexan with a soldering iron. I have a $10 soldering iron that I didn't care if I ruined, so I gave it a try. It does cut the plastic, somewhat slowly, by melting through it.

I figured I could grind off the blobs of melted plastic. Wrong on that one. This stuff is really, really hard. It was shreding my flap wheels, and the Dremel grinding wheels don't seem to faze it.

I'm moving soon, anyway, so I really don't have time to work on it. In the mean time, I'll watch Bill's CD.

Later,
Josh

I would second the scroll saw. They are hand to have around as they will do smaller thing well. I even cut through some 1/2" purple heart with one once. I was using it for a jewelry box. It took a while, but it did it. If you get a good one then it should suffice for must cutting needs you would find in making scales, at least that is what I am guessing. Grizzly is another brand. They aren't quite par with delta or dewalt, but they are still a good option on a limited budget.

Band saw may also work, you can get the small ones for more detailed work - I would imagine that this would perform much like a hack saw, no?

Jeff