Acrylic cutting?

[Fred McLean]

Is it clear acrylic?

[Andy Gorman]

If you flame polish coloured acrylics there is a chance of it going a bit milky, clear is fine.

If I want a neater edge, I scrape the edge with a piece of steel, first along the corners of the edge then along the flat. This gets rid of saw marks. I use half of a pair of scissors. You can then use wet-and-dry if you want it really smooth.

[Ryan Fairweather]

yes, its clear

[Fred McLean]

Scraping with steel the way to go 😀

[Kevin Flowers]

I use a steel ruler works well because of its nice finished edge

Kev

[David Rogers]

Posted this before.

http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … ight=flame

What I personally use to scrape the edges is a stanley blade OUT of the knife, then flame polished. Can also wet’n’dry with the finest grade, then polish up with brasso & a buff. Works a treat.

Dave

[Martin Pearson]

Ryan, how did you cut the board in the first place? Materials like acrylic should really be cut with a negative rake blade which should give you a pretty good finish everytime.

[Ryan Fairweather]

Yes, did that thanks. Followed the manufacturers cutting instructions but just wanted to add a better overall finish to it.

I scraped it with a steel edge yesterday and i am really pleased with the result.

I think i will experiment with the flame polishing on an off cut as well.

thanks for all the help guys 😀

[Martin Pearson]

Depends what it is for Ryan, to be honest with you I havent tried flame polishing myself and didn’t know about the steel rule trick, when I have used acrylic before I have cut it myself if it is going in a lightbox or a frame where the edges won’t be seen but when I have done stuff with a visible edge I had it supplied cut to size to ensure there were nice edges on it. Will have to have a go at both methods sometime but to be honest I didn’t use to use very much acrylic other than for lightbox panels at all.

[Rodney Gold]

If you flame polish and use ANY solvent or glues on the acrylic or even if its near solvents , you are almost guaranteed to get stress cracks , be aware of this.

[Martin Pearson]

Rodney, thats something well worth knowing cheers. I take it from what you have said that would include the adhesives used with vinyls. So it wouldn’t be a good idea to make up a panel for wall mounting using say frosted crystal if you had flame polished the edges of the acrylic.

[Rodney Gold]

No m vinyl adhesive are fine , its stuff like meths , screenprinting inks ,acetone , thinners, chloroform , methyl chloride , solvent based glues etc that will give problems. Will happen with any process that puts heat into Acrylic.