Cut Plexiglass on Table saw?

[Mark Vaughn]

Can you cut plexiglass on a tablesaw or with any other woodworking tools? thanks!

[Larry Fox]

Don't know about plexiglass but I have cut Lexan on both a TS and bandsaw. BS was fine but TS was a bit dicey.

[Matt Woessner]

I have cut some with a saw. When I attempted it is chip and broke out easy. good luck. a band saw might be the way to do it.

[David DeCristoforo]

Yes you can...but. Wear eye protection. Use a fine tooth blade and feed very slowly. If the plastic gets hot it will gum up and make a mess of your blade, your saw and the edge of the piece of plastic. A band saw will cut easier but the cautions are the same. Oh, and did I mention wearing eye protection? And lastly, wear eye protection....

[Karl Brogger]

Bandsaw will give you better results. Mark it and sand to your line with a beltsander, or use an edge sander to get a straight edge. You can also use a propane torch to get a shiny clean looking edge if that is neccessary.

[Mark Vaughn]

thanks for the help. you got me scared i think i'll just use a linoleum knife now...

[Gary Curtis]

I was having bad luck trying to cut edges on a router. I had no luck varying router bits. Nor did dropping the bit speed help. Finally, somebody in England suggested sandwiching the plexiglass between thin hardboard. That did the trick.

It also worked on the tablesaw while using a 60-tooth plywood blade. Haven't tried it with a general purpose blade.

Gary Curtis

[Greg Hines, MD]

I made some bird feeders for xmas projects this year, and the 1/8" plexiglass that I used for the sides cut just fine on the tablesaw. I did gang all of the pieces I needed together with blue tape, and also taped the cut lines, which really helped with chipping.

I had terrible luck with the knife that they sold with it. It scored the plastic just fine, but when I would go to snap it off, it chipped and broke irregularly.

I then used a blowtorch to soften the edges. Practice that step before you do it on your final piece, and keep the flame moving over the edge. I clamped the torch supply bottle down, and moved the workpiece across it, rather than the other way around. When you are done, lay it on a flat surface to cool, as thin stuff like I used had a tendency to warp a bit with the heat.

Doc

[Anthony Whitesell]

I use a cheap 60-80 tooth plywood blade installed backwards on the table saw (ie. a blade with shallow gullets and high negative tooth angle). It works great. I have also used a bandsaw with good success. Any non-reciprocating saw should work fine for cutting plexiglass (ie. avoid jig saws and sawzalls)

[jason lambert]

not easy but depends on the thickness, a 0 clearance insert helps and a negative kerf blade that is made to cut plastic helps prevent chip out. I also put masking tape on both sides where I am going to cut to help with chip out and marks.

I usually use my festool saw for this works great because it sandwiches the material between the guide and table so there is no chip out and good support also you can do a light cut backwards and then forwards for a perfect cut on both side. Just adding this in case you have one.

[Dan Lee]

Neat trick I learned some where on the internet is to tilt your TS blade to 45 degrees, then raise the blade about a 1/16" and run your piece thru. This makes a perfect score line works great

I also found scoring it this way on both sides works even better

[Michael Poller]

New to woodworking and recently built a cross cut sled that called for a 1/4" plexi blade guard.

Had no luck using the scoring w/ a sharp utility blade methods either.

Was contemplating the plastic blade Freud makes but it's like $90 (which is fine for blade I'll use often) and I don't see myself cutting that much plexi.

Found a $20 (or less - don't recall exact price) blade at the orange borg that worked great. Made by Oldham, comes in a cheap yellow plastic packaging. Has 200 teeth, like a plywood blade on 'roids.

Did the job very well, but man that stuff (the plexi) smells terrible after cutting it, and it wasn't even melting or anything. Left a decent cut that required only a small but of sanding to soften up and clean up the edge.

[Matt Ocel]

Plexiglass on the TS, not a problem. It cuts pretty well. Although with everybody saying BS, I might give that a try.

[Neal Clayton]

I was having bad luck trying to cut edges on a router. I had no luck varying router bits. Nor did dropping the bit speed help. Finally, somebody in England suggested sandwiching the plexiglass between thin hardboard. That did the trick.

It also worked on the tablesaw while using a 60-tooth plywood blade. Haven't tried it with a general purpose blade.

Gary Curtis

in years past i remember plexiglass coming with a thin cardboard backing that was stuck to both sides for that very purpose, to make it easier to cut with common saws.

i don't know when this fell out of practice or it's just the places i've gotten it from that don't carry it like that anymore.

anyways, if you can find it with the cardboard paper attached to it that'll solve your problem.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I've cut it with a bandsaw before and had reasonable luck. I made a fairly short cut - two feet or so - stopped the saw and cleaned the melted and rehardened plastic off things and repeated the process. I tried it with a tablesaw and threw little bits of plexiglass all over. I sandwiched it between two scrap pieces of plywood and it helped make a smoother cut but still had breaks along the edges that ran in at shallow angles about an inch.

I've cut similar things with a circular saw with the blade reversed, but never thought about doing the same thing with a tablesaw blade. D'oh! :o You might call a glass company and ask what they use.

[Brian Backner]

Did the job very well, but man that stuff (the plexi) smells terrible after cutting it, and it wasn't even melting or anything. Left a decent cut that required only a small but of sanding to soften up and clean up the edge.

A trick I learned from a plastics worker was to pass the flame from a propane torch over the cut edge. Pass the flame back and forth at a moderate pace. The rough cut edge will soften and smooth right out, giving it a polished appearance.

Try it out on the cut off piece first, of course. And do it outside while you're at it - while it is possible to ignite the stuff, even melting it generates some horrendous odors!

Brian

[Kevin Groenke]

We cut acrylic with a tablesaw on a nearly daily basis. Use an acrylic or non-ferrous metals (aluminum) blade. These blades have carbide tips with a triple-chip grind and a negative rake angle. Any/all plastics fabricators use tablesaws to cut plastic stock.

Here are some relatively inexpensive options:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?id=100043779&jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&marketID=401&productId=100043779&locStoreNum=8125&langId=-1&linktype=product&storeId=10051&ddkey=THDSiteMap
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=7475
http://www.amazon.com/Freud-TK706-10-Inch-Non-Ferrous-Cutting/dp/B00006407O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1211240758&sr=1-1
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203195831&listingid=22030788&dcaid=17902

With the proper blade you can get a very good cut with little-to-no chipping. For a cleaner edge, hit it with a scraper, then polish with a buffing wheel charged with polishing compound, or lick it with a flame. You can even use a jointer if you're so inclined. I'm currently looking for a 4" benchtop jointer specifically for finishing acrylic edges.

In my experience unless you use a BS blade with a high TPI and little set you will get significant chipping.

We've had mixed results with a jigsaw, with a quality ground blade it cuts pretty well.

-kg

[Leigh Betsch]

I've cut both Plexiglas (acrylic) and Lexan (polycarbonate) on the TS. The Plexiglas has much more of a tendency to melt it you rout it, the Lexan is great but much more expensive. You gotta watch out to make sure that it stays flat on the table saw or it will kick back with a vengeance. I've have several major kick backs, one that put a hole through a peg board wall in my old shop. I still cut the stuff but only with a push stick to hold of down, and I always stand off the the side. I've not cut any with my new slider but when I do I'll clamp it to the slider and not just hand hold it down.

[Guy Roland]

I cut a lot of plexi .100 and 1/8" I use a plexi cutter ( similar to a glass cutter but has a carbide tip instead of a wheel). Just score and snap. I made a straightedge out of a sheetrock square backed with 1/8" cork so it won't slip. Good for cutting glass or acrylic.

[Lee Schierer]

When cutting plastics on a TS, remember the following 10 tips:
1. Wear eye protection
2. Wear hearing protection
3. Use the finest tooth blade you can find. Note: running a carbide tooth blade backwards can dislodge the teeth
4. Keep the tips of the teeth on the blade very low so they just break through the material being cut.
5. Use a zero clearance insert
6. Either sandwich the material between two layers of wood or press the plastic down tight to the table as it passes into the blade.
7. Feed at a fast rate without forcing the cut to prevent melting
8. Make sure you leave the protective paper or plastic film on the plastic until you are completely done cutting and sanding the edges
9. You can run lexan (not acrylic) across your jointer to clean up the edges.
10. If you cut very much be prepared to clean up plastic shavings from every surface of the saw for weeks.

[David G Baker]

I did not read all of the above posts but in the past I purchased a lot of Plexiglas from Tandy Plastics. They use a table saw with a special blade designed for cutting the different plastics. It always worked well and gave a very smooth, clean cut. The blade was carbide tipped and the teeth were quite fine.
On thin Lexan and Plexiglas I use the score and snap method similar to cutting regular glass. Done right this method works quite well.
If you have a band-saw and don't want to purchase a plastic cutting blade for your table saw, the band-saw is probably safer.

[Mark Vaughn]

well ok thanks for all the replies, i went ahead and braved it on the bandsaw and it cut nicely. no chips or anything. the 1/8 plexiglass had a blue film on both sides to protect the surface and i think that helped it not chip too. thanks!

[Keith Pitman]

You can also snap plexiglas pretty easily. Use a straight edge and a utility knife to score it thoroughly, the hold it on over an edge and snap it. It gives a straight, but rough line. Then use the technique mentioned above to smooth it with a torch, if you need a smooth edge.

[Alan Schwabacher]

On thin Lexan and Plexiglas I use the score and snap method similar to cutting regular glass. Done right this method works quite well.

Score and snap sounds fine for acrylic, but not for polycarbonate (Lexan).

[Bill Wyko]

I cut up to 1" plexi with no problem. We build plexi woofer boxes on a table saw all the time.

[Johnny Kleso]

I worked several years as a pattern and model maker and cut 1,000s of feet on Acrylic (plexiglas) on a TS

Cut slow and if you have a helper blow air on the cut to cool the chips.. This will help stop the hot chips from melting onto the cut in some cases..

Use a knife or razor to scrape burrs..

[Norman Pyles]

Score and snap sounds fine for acrylic, but not for polycarbonate (Lexan).
Yep, you can bend polycarbonate in a brake, just like steel.

[jack mazzuchelli]

YES you must use a triple chip grind blade, cuts fine