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Jerry Bruette
08-25-2020, 10:00 PM
Has anyone ever cut thin acrylic? How did you do it.

I want to buy some acrylic front surface mirror and cut it into strips to make kaleidoscopes and teleidoscopes.

Also how would you glue an acrylic sphere to wood? Silicone, epoxy, or some other magical adhesive?
Kev Williams
08-26-2020, 1:45 AM
How thin? Lasers are great for cutting most thin acrylics. If it's THIN you can score it with an X-acto knife and snap it.

Magic glue: About a year ago I bought some of that UV glue in a dispenser, was on youtube ads, Amazon sells it now, "Bondic"-- It's not 'magic', as there's plenty of slickery stuff it doesn't like to stick to, like a rubbery watch band I tried to glue back together, but it's great otherwise! My wife has some cloth-covered flipflop sandals that back around January one of the toe-straps tore in half. I glued the 2 halves back together and it's STILL holding!

For something more traditional, 5 minute epoxy has saved a lot of my days ;)
Jerry Bruette
08-26-2020, 5:16 AM
How thin? Lasers are great for cutting most thin acrylics. If it's THIN you can score it with an X-acto knife and snap it.

Vendor says 3mm and 6mm. I think I'd be using the 3mm.
Dave Anderson NH
08-26-2020, 8:29 AM
It cuts just fine on a table saw or with a circular saw. Just don't remove the masking before cutting.
ChrisA Edwards
08-26-2020, 8:47 AM
I used to cut a lot of 1/8" (3mm) Acrylic to make visors for Honda Goldwing's.

I clamped the piece in a two sided plywood mold, sandwiching it, and used a bandsaw with the finest blade I could find to cut the basic shape. I then routed to final size. Depending upon the size of your strips, this might make handling it easier as it is rather brittle. I would put four pieces in at a time, this limits the flex you get with a single piece

I would bend it using a heat gun, it would bend at about 300F and hold the bend once cool.

I glued rubber edging on it with super glue.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/DSC_9894_500x331.jpg
Aaron Rosenthal
08-26-2020, 12:36 PM
Olfa makes a special knife with a little hook in it, which scores it wonderfully. No special procedures needed.