Cutting Plexiglas

[Jerry Solomon]

My wife has asked me to cut a piece of Plexiglas for her. It may not be technically Plexiglas but it's some type of clear, plastic material about 1/8" thick. Can I do this safely with my table saw using a carbide tipped blade?

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

You can cut plastic/Plexiglas on your table-saw. but for that size practice if the cuts are straight I find it easier to score the plastic with a sharp knife.then put the scoreline on the edge os a table and pop it off. I tape newspaper or put a cloth over the Plexiglas in case it splinters. If this is going to be something you occasionally look at the hardware store for a plastic scribe. It is like a little hook-bill knife made for scoring plastic.

I hope this helps
Roger

[Wolf Kiessling]

My wife has asked me to cut a piece of Plexiglas for her. It may not be technically Plexiglas but it's some type of clear, plastic material about 1/8" thick. Can I do this safely with my table saw using a carbide tipped blade?


I probably shouldn't even be posting on this because I don't know much about this. However, if memory serves, I think I tried scoring a piece of plexiglass one time and then breaking it and I think I screwed it up. Re cutting it with the saw, seems to me that this works well if you use a fine tooth blade and put it into the saw backwards. I know that I have cut vinyl this way, not sure about the plexiglass. Maybe someone with more knowledge can weigh in on this.

Wolf

[Keith Outten]

Wolf,

Cutting PlexiGlass or any other brand of acrylic is very easy to do on your table saw. I cut sheets all the time and use whatever blade that is in my saw at the time. The key is to use a slow feed rate and your plastic sheet will cut nicely. Make sure you support large sheets when cutting and keep them flat on the table's surface.

[Hoa Dinh]

My wife has asked me to cut a piece of Plexiglas for her. It may not be technically Plexiglas but it's some type of clear, plastic material about 1/8" thick. Can I do this safely with my table saw using a carbide tipped blade?

I do it all the time. For straight cuts, I use my TS with an 80T blade (Jesada Ultra-fine, the same blade I use to cut melamine). For curved cuts, I first make a 1/4" hardboard template, then I use my bandsaw with a 1/4" general purpose blade, and then trim with a router and a flush trim bit riding on the template.

The cut is then sanded with 180 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

For very thin plexiglass (< 1/16"), I sandwich the plexiglass between two layers of 1/4" or 1/8" hardboard using double-sided tape, and then cut.

[Lynn Sonier]

Don't try to cut it using a bandsaw as the plexiglass glues itself back together behind the blade.
I have used the tablesaw and gotten good results. You can then treat the edges with a propane torch to smooth it out (practice before doing the final cut).
Good luck!

[Jerry Solomon]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try on the TS.

[John Wadsworth]

Plexi cuts just fine on a TS. I've done it with an ordinary combination blade lots of times--and any roughness in the cut cleans up well with a sharp handplane.

One last caveat--as always, if the material you're cutting is thin enough to have any chance at all of slipping under your TS rip fence, either clamp on an auxiliary fence tight to the table or fix the plexi to a sacrificial sled.

Saw away!

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Say! Jerry
For my 2 cents - You can also joint the edge on the jointer to get "it" smooth.

BUT don't put it through the planer to smooth out the face. he-he!
Daniel
:rolleyes: