Bandsaw Blade TPI for Cutting Acrylic

[Bill George]

Since I need to cut acrylic with my Jet bandsaw does anyone have a recommendation for the teeth per inch blade best suited for the job?

[David Somers]

Bill,

Use a 6tpi buttress or skip tooth blade if you will be doing relatively tight radius curves. A 1/4 to 1/2" blade width should do it. Up to 3/4 for straight ripping style cuts is better.

The risk with a bandsaw is that normal set blades dull quickly with that material. And a non skip tooth can clog and then cause burning and also chipping of the plastic. The tooth range I gave you should handle up to about a 1/2" thick material. I am afraid I have not dealt with anything larger than that. I am also not sure of the speed of the blade. I have no way to measure that on my jet. You dont want to go so fast that you heat the plastic. Or so slow that you cause chipping.

Hope that helps.

Dave

[Bill George]

Most of my acrylic will be 3/8 inch or less. Right now it is .250 but my machine will not cut it, at least in one pass and I don't feel like running my 35 watt tube to the max and making multiple passes.

[Scott Shepherd]

A general rule, if I remember correctly, is that you always want at least 2 1/2 teeth engaged in the work at all times. That seems to work for most everything. If you have thicker materials, it's a coarser blade, thinner materials, it takes more teeth per inch to keep 2 1/2 teeth in the work at all times.