How To Trim Acrylic Sheet

Cutting thin sheets of plastic.

How to trim acrylic sheet.

How to cut acrylic by hand. Line the plexiglass sheet along the cut line. Clamp the plexiglass sheet to the work surface for stability. Routers can be used to cut acrylic for both curved and straight cuts.

All you need is a thin acrylic sheet a straight edge that is longer than your cut clamps and a scoring knife. Fit a circular saw or table saw with a fine blade with crosscut teeth to prevent chipping the piece during the cut. If you want a straight cut in a thin acrylic or polycarbonate plastic sheet up to inch thick reach for a simple utility knife then follow these steps. Next repeat on the opposite side of the.

To guard against cracking place the acrylic on a flat sheet of glass in a shop oven not the one in your kitchen at about 180ºf 82ºc for about 1 hour per mm thickness then let them air cool. Cutting acrylic by hand is the easiest way to go for a beginner who isn t familiar with power tools. Use the saw at a slower speed or keep the material cool by spraying water over the cut point during the saw operation. Using solvent based glues on laser cut extruded acrylic can cause cracking due to the internal stresses from temperature differences in the acrylic.

Once you ve scored the initial line go over it a few times with the blade until a groove forms. Then score the line using a plastic scoring blade using the ruler as a guide so your line is straight. For best results use another tool like the earlier mentioned table saw to cut your acrylic roughly before getting a more exact finish with the router. To cut acrylic sheets start by marking the line you want to cut using a ruler and a permanent marker.

For a thin sheet of plexiglass that is material up to about 3 16 inch thick use a scoring method not dissimilar from a technique used to cut actual glass.