Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Barry Irby

I think yes. Keep the material moving past the blade and the router bit moving.

My son built a filter system for his aquarium using my wood working tools. As I recall, the cuts were good but not polished. Some of them he ran over the jointer and that worked well.

Ps, Don't know which plastic it was

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Terry in Edmonton

Lexan works beautifully with wood tools. Feed smoothly through the table saw and router at a medium speed. Edges can be polished with a LIGHT touch with a propane torch.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Dick Coers

Terry is right, polycarbonate works really well with woodworking tools. It's not brittle like acrylic. Coolest thing I found out about working polycarbonate is that you can cold bend it in a sheet metal brake. It just bends right over the fingers, even more than 90 degrees.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Tom Dunlap

I was wandering through 'Instructables' a couple of days ago and found a hot cutter that the fella used for cutting plastic sheeting. I've seen them built for cutting foam.

Tom

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

paul woolson

If you are 100% sure it's Poly Carb you are fine with wood working tooling. If there is any chance that it is acrylic, stay FAR away from spinning tools. Acrylic can shatter and send shards of sharp shrapnel flying all over the place. Not a fun experience.

Lexan can melt if you move it too slowly. It's not usually a problem, you can just chip off the melted part and you're good to go. If you desire a polished edge you can hit it very quickly with a blow torch and it will shine right up.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

TomD

Lexan is nice to cut. I cut it for boat windows, or for pattern templates. Recently I cut out a very complicated piece for a holster, or something, and I had to use the power fret saw. It cut beautifully, but when I went to lift the piece out it was fully re-welded along the cut line and wouldn't budge. Oh well.

I would be very careful about burning the material, as with a wire saw. One never knows what is in those plastics, and even minimal exposure can be bad. Last time I bought Lexan it was some unknown supplier, so I wouldn't know where one would check about burning it.

Lexan is good for high impact applications, like offshore windows in boats. Even there, the tribe is returning to Plexiglass because it scratches less, which hasn't been my experience, I like the stuff that is in my boat. But anyway, cutting plexiglass with saws, and routers, and sanding it, is easy, I haven't turned it though, can't say about that. I make most of my patterns out of plexi, or wood, due to cost.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

Gary Smyth

I'm confused about difference between plexiglas, acrylic and lexan. I found this site. There are other sites if you type in for a comparison between different plastics. Perhaps this will help.

http://www.coloradoplastics.com/blog-0/bid/42625/Polycarbonate-Lexan-vs-Acrylic-Lucite

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

William Duffield

I've had it re-weld itself in the kerf behind both a bandsaw blade and a tablesaw blade.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

John Veerkamp

Put masking tape on the cut line and move it faster. a really sharp blade also helps. I've also heard of lubricating the blade with some wax helps cut down friction on shorter cuts.

Re: Cutting polycarbonate (Lexan)

DizD

Back when I started 40+ years ago, I took a cabinetmaking course at a local Tech center. The instructor would cut high pressure laminate (Formica) with a plywood blade (steel, this was early days of carbide) mounted backwards in the TS. It is essentially a negative rake angle, used today on laminate blades and RAS blades.. This technique should work on most any plastic sheet.

It stinks and plastic chips get in your underwear

GolfSteve in Calgary

When cutting it, the stuff stinks like burned plastic and stinks up your shop for a week. I wear a chemical respirator because the smell bothers me.

Do up the top button on your shirt, wear an apron, etc. because the chips get everywhere.

Otherwise with a bit of attention to feed rate, I've never had a problem cutting the stuff. Use a very light cut if using a router, but keep the router moving so it doesn't gum up.

I've tried polishing edges with fire - it works so long as you don't need a perfectly straight edge. I've also polished edges with sandpaper, which also works fine.

Couple of things to avoid.

Keith Newton

Clean your blade before cutting, any pitch on the side of the blade will weld onto the side of the cuts. This plastic is really really tough, so don't even think of using a even slightly dull blade, because it will start to melt, then weld itself onto the side of the teeth. Most novices would tend to slow down if this starts to happen, which is the opposite of what you should do.

Trying to back out of the cut after the new material has welded itself onto the sides makes the blade wider, and very prone to kickback. So the goal, is to have a sharp blade, then feed fast enough each tooth to form a proper chip, which takes the heat from the cut out with it, while small chips won't .

As for cleaning up the edge, a good sharp block plane will cut this nicely, as will jointer or router. I would not recommend the torching method if your not up to speed on it, due to crazing.