You are a lifesaver!
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Do you mean us a CNC laser cutter?
my impression for acrylic to cut out shapes, no experience with v-cuts: I tried all, different spindle speed and feeds, air blow: nothing worked with extruded acrylic, it must be cast acrylic.
Then lowest setting for the spindle speed, and highest for feed.
After several attempts: there are router bits called āoā or āo fluteā -bits. No cut of cast acrylic without such a bit any more. IMO that is a must for acrylic. These bits (then again low router speed, highest possible feed rate) are an excellent choice for vinyl records and cast acrylic.
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Iām trying to cut out two ply (color) acrylic, it is red and white 1/16th thickā¦ Iām having trouble finding the right bite, feed rate, plunge rate, depth per pass to useā¦ If you have any suggestions on what use please let me know! Thank you in advance. !
IMG_4452|240x320
this is an old chat
I would start this, also you will need higher feed rate with acrylic and less depth.
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That stuff cuts like butter. Are you engraving or cutting through. What endmill are you using?
Feed as fast as your machine can, and depth of cut can be whatever you need (depending on bit).
I am engraving it with a laser and cutting it out with the router. I am still playing around to figure out what works best on the material. I used a Solid Carbide - Fishtail Spiral, Upcut Bits - 1/32. And I loved how it wasnāt cutting wide but it did melt the acrylic and breakā¦ I have a variety pack of 10 different ones that will be here tomorrow. If you have any recommendations please let me know.
Thank you
Here are some that should perform really wellā¦
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Brandon Parker
Iād recommend this end mill.
You could probably cut in one pass, but use more to start.
Feed fast!
Amana Tool - 51441 Solid Carbide CNC Spiral āOā Single Flute, Plastic Cutting 1/16 Dia x 1 Amazon.com
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Broke a bit with your depth settings. Did you mean a different depth? I canāt get a clean cut. Only one i was able to get is when the bit broke.
611 speed 1
Feed 80
Depth .25
Spiral upcut (dead)
Also tried straight cut bits as well.
.25 seems very aggressive for a DOC unless you are using CAM with an adaptive strategy like Fusion 360 where often you are doing a complete DOC (with a chip load set to something like 0.02). First off the machine isnāt rigid enough to do a slot at 0.25ā, and as demonstrated the end-mill isnāt strong enough to survive that pressure either.
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Assuming inches?
The post from which you took your settings was in mm. He used 0.25mm depth.
What endmill are you using?
You always need to feed faster with plastic. Reduce the depth of cut depending on your machine, spindle and endmill.
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Thanks for the clarification. Yes in inches. With higher spindle speed (worked) but was a rough cut. After playing around i think the acrylic is extruded instead of cast. Tried an old piece and noticed a cleaner cut. In suggestion on bits for plastics?
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Single Flute Upcut Bits also known as āO-Fluteā Bits work best for plastics like acrylicā¦
using a slower spindle speed and FAST feed rate is key because this will create larger CHIPS and this will take away the heat very well and prevent it from binding up from melted plasticā¦
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