Thread: QUESTION? on cutting acrylic for scales

I'm using a scroll saw to cut acrylic scales and it has been melting it.
Once it's cut through it is still stuck together in places.
Could the problem be i have the speed too fast or something else?
Thanks for any and all input.

Yup, slow it down if you can. Could also be the TPI on the saw. Also different acrylics from different sources will be a bit different.

If you cant slow the saw down you can cut acrylic easily with a hand held fret saw. Thats how I cut all my acrylic scales, works great.

Yeah, I've had that same problem with the acrylic pen blanks from woodpenpro.com they seem to have a much lower melting point than regular cast acrylic sheet used in the sign industry. Cant really offer much practical advice though, I did have some luck just snapping along the cut line after it melted back together but ended up just not using the scroll saw.
Grant

Originally Posted by baldy

Yeah, I've had that same problem with the acrylic pen blanks from woodpenpro.com Grant

That's where mine are from

Slow it down, and try putting a piece of packaging tape on each side of the acrylic.
I have never tried that, but I was just reading about it, and mean to try it next time I have a material that overheats easily - supposedly the packaging tape lubricates the blade and reduces friction and heat.

I would try a coarser blade, and increase the feed rate. If the blade is not cutting, it is rubbing (friction and heat).

Charlie

Have to agree with the others here,my last set of acrylic i did the only way i could make any progress was to use the coarsest blade i had and feed quickly but pausing every 1/4" or so and back up the blade thru the cut other wise it fuses together again.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the info guys

When you consider the time and trouble in the rest of the job, the use of a scroll saw doesn't save enough of either to matter. I use jeweller's metal piercing blades in a fretsaw, for they are just as good as any for non-metallic materials, but most of them are far too fine. I initially deceived myself because with fish-hooks, because in British sizes the bigger the number the smaller the hook, and those termed 1/0 etc. are larger than the plain numbers. But with piercing saw blades it is the opposite on both counts:

http://ncbaines.co.uk/Documents/Piercing_saw_blades.pdf

Jeweler's 'piercing saw'

The jeweller's frame for these blades isn't deep enough to cut the full length of a scale, but they will fit an ordinary fretsaw.

A coping saw is a useful tool, and with most you can turn the handle and blade, to cut with the frame to one side. But most blades you can get are too coarse for working on anything thin, without chipping. Junior hacksaw blades, with fine metal-cutting teeth, can usually be used in the same frame. At around 1/4in. wide they will easily follow the long sides of a scale, but you will have to do something else with the ends. I often wonder whether the use of wide blades (probably on a bow saw, which they used to tension with a sort of tourniquet) was responsible for the pointed end we sometimes see on old British razor scales. That is an interesting name, for it probably started out as a sort of wooden bow, became less so with the invention of the "tourniquet" and frame, but has reverted to bow-shaped as a tubular steel logging saw.

Bow saw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia