Is cutting acryllic tuff on your blades?

[Frederick Skelly]

I usually cut acryllic/plexiglas on the bandsaw, but the other day I needed to cut something wider than the BS will handle. So I cut it on my tablesaw. The material was 1/8" thick and I made two cuts - both under 2 feet long. I was using my Woodworker-II blade. That mighr have been a dumb move. Because later in the day, I cut poplar and got a burn on the edge - that's unusual, especially since this blade was re- sharpened by Forrest just a few months ago.

So I unplugged the saw and did a finger test on the teeth - they dont feel as sharp as I recall. But that can be a very subjective test. But that burn is bugging me. Tonight Ill go cut a few other parts to see what I see. In the mean time, can anyone tell me if the 2 cuts I made are actually likely to have significantly dulled this blade?

Thanks guys,
Fred

[John Conklin]

Fred, I would think that acrylic or any plastic might be generally harder on a blade than most woods, but it doesn't seem like it would dull a blade that quickly. I keep an inexpensive Dewalt blade around for cutting plastic, pressure treated... anything that might dull my good blade. When that gets dull, I just have it sharpened locally and still have a blade I can use for 'good' material.

[Dave Cullen]

I've never had any issues with it, other than it can melt and clog saw teeth. Not so much with carbide, but using a hole saw is a mistake. I think you should look elsewhere for the burning issue.

[Matt Day]

I don't think it would be harder on the blades, but I don't think the WW2 was the ideal blade choice. I think you want to use a high tooth count triple chip grind blade, and some companies like Amana make a wood & plastic blade.
http://www.tapplastics.com/product/supplies_tools/plastic_tools_supplies/saw_blade/363

I just bought a sheet of Acrylite (Tru-Vue, plexiglass, whatever) to cut up for picture frames and plan to use an older plywood blade.

[Keith Outten]

I have cut a lot of plastic, acrylic and Corian on my table saw over the years and haven't noticed it to cause my blades to dull. If your concerned you might consider using a cheap seven and a quarter inch blade from your skill saw on your table saw. You don't need a large diameter blade to cut plastics and you can throw the cheap blade away when it gets dull.
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[Jim Becker]

The acrylic will not likely cause wear on your blade, but it might cause a deposit of melted plastic on the blade, accounting for the burning. That's the challenge with cutting this stuff. So Keith's suggestion to use an "inexpensive" blade to cut the acrylic is a good one and yes, you can use a small blade as long as it has the correct arbor diameter for your saw.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks guys. I'll check that blade for "deposits" tonight AND use a different blade next time. Im so used to using that WW-II for everything that it just never occurred to me to change blades. (For me, that Forrest is a GREAT all around blade! Best $100 Ive spent.)

Merry Christmas!
Fred

[Lee Schierer]

I hate cutting plastic on my TS. The plastic sawdust sticks to everything. As others have noted, I suspect that your blade melted some of the plastic and it has stuck to your blade.

[Peter Quinn]

The acrylic will not likely cause wear on your blade, but it might cause a deposit of melted plastic on the blade, accounting for the burning. That's the challenge with cutting this stuff. So Keith's suggestion to use an "inexpensive" blade to cut the acrylic is a good one and yes, you can use a small blade as long as it has the correct arbor diameter for your saw.

This was my though exactly. Sometimes it's more of a film than deposits like you get from wood pitch buildup, sort of clogs the sides of the teeth. It's difficult to clean with standard pitch cleaners that work based on the chemistry of wood pitch. There are blades made which are optimized for cutting plastics, usually triple chip ground to handle the brittle nature of the surface and non stick coated. Maybe try spraying static guard from the dryer the blade pre cutting? I have one blade I use for cutting plastics and urethane trim, I keep the wood blades for wood only.

[Frederick Skelly]

There was a bit of plastic residue on that blade. I got it off and no more burning!

Thanks for giving me a hand guys!
Fred

[Mike Null]

If you want to continue to cut acrylic/laminates on your table saw then buy a Freud laminate blade. It makes perfect cuts every time. The WW2 is the wrong blade because of the aggressive rake of the tooth and the set of the teeth as well as probably being a 40 tooth blade versus an 80 tooth blade. The rake is very important and should be minimal for acrylic.

[Bill Ryall]

I cut seemingly acres of it. I have a specialty acrylic blade (Freud?) I usually use, but I will do quick cuts with my usual 50T combination blade. No issues with the blade other than some formulations melting quicker and leaving a residue on the blade.

[John Schweikert]

Many companies make triple chip grind blades for reasonable prices to dedicate for cutting plastics.

I had bought the Freud blade made for plastics and laminates. It does make a considerable difference in edge quality and no blade cleaning. My crosscut sled on a previous last table saw was so accurate, it would give Woodpeckers run for their money. So I cut multiple one foot triangles from 1/4" acrylic and use them for tool setups. After doing many glue-ups of cutting boards and other projects, I can see that the triangles were the best shop made items to date and didn't cost $100 each.

[Keith Outten]

FWIW acetone will melt acrylic on contact.
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[John D Watson]

We cut alot of this stuff in the navy, including 1/2" lexan. Our trick was to always leave the protective paper or plastic on the material for the cut and layout a THIN LINE (it does'nt take much) of WD40 or similiar product along the cut line. This kept the fine stuff out of the air and nothing ever suck to the blades. It seemed to make the cut go smoother as well. A quick wipe down of the machine when completed is the only rule we came up with. Works well for both bandsaw and table saw. To keep if from being messy I sprayed some in the cap and use a small brush to apply to the line.

[Tom Walz]

Depends on what you mean by acrylic, laminate, etc. Some of it has "filler" in it tosave on costs. The filler is generally a clay so you are cuttingthrough very fine rocks. That is hard on blades.

Some acrylics, laminate, plastics in general are harder andmore brittle than others are. This iswhere a high ATB can be very helpful in preventing chipping. A high ATB is an alternate top bevel bladewhere the points are pointier. You typically have a sharper point making theinitial piercing into the material and a narrower cutting edge on the sides ofthe tips.

Woodworker II blades are excellent general-purpose blades. They are typically very well made. Their best use seems to be in applicationswhere they make a limited number of very short cuts. They can heat up in an application where theyare cutting continuously and thus are not generally suitable for cuttingmaterials in manufacturing applications.

Many of the special purpose blades are made formanufacturing applications. In these uses,the material is run through continuously at high speeds for a full shift withpossibly breaks for lunch and coffee breaks. In this case, the different grinds really are a necessity.

Besides different grinds, different saw blades may havedifferent carbide on them. We use adifferent grade of carbide on our laminate blades than we do on our general-purposeblades or on our nail cutter blades.

Our Cermet 2 grade is an extremely fine grade with a complexbinder that is specifically designed to stay sharp and an extremely high wearsituation such as cutting through man-made materials with clay binder where theabrasion is very high.

For general-purpose cutting, we really like our super C,which takes advantage of submicron technology to give the saw blade that istougher than a C2 with better wear than a C3.

There are certain applications that are very hard on thecarbide. If you are cutting flooring, yourun into a real chance of hitting nails. Many truss applications pay their people by piece rate so they reallyshove the lumber through. In this case,we go with what we call our nail cutting grade, which is big grains with a lotof cobalt.

Be very careful
Saw tips do occasionally come off sawblades and carbide sawtips can break. Mostly the broken partburies itself in the wood. Occasionallythe broken part lands in an eye. It has been better than a year since Ireceived a phone call about somebody going blind because they had a piece ofcarbide land in their eye and I would not mind if I never got another one. It is a low probability but it does happen. It is much more likely to happen if you areusing the wrong sawblade.