Can the Xcarve Mill Plexiglass?

Can the X-Carve mill plexiglass? Would you recommend Acrylic or Plexiglass for edge lit signs?

Acrylic - made from polymers of acrylic acid or acrylates.

Plexiglass - made of polymethyl methacrylate (the same material as perspex or Lucite).

All the edge lit displays I have ever seen were acrylic.

cast acrylic is easiest to cut

CAST acrylic, dont even try normal acrylic, wasted about half a sheet of 24x24x0.250. But if you have no other option, 2500mm/m and 0.25mm DOC with a 5 flute upcut endmill did the trick for me on normal acrylic.

Nice tip! Never considered using a endmill with more than 2 flutes.

Of course my extruded acrylic experiments have been a disaster… :slight_smile:

@Ebr its all i had at hand, didn’t want to ruin my only 3 flute alum endmill. 2 or 3 should work heaps better and let you go a bit slower on the feeds.

i think the simple answer to the question is YES i can do plastic products like acrylic or plexiglass. the trick is to run your feed / speed correctly or you will hate that stuff. not to slow or you’ll gum up the bit with plastic. not to fast or you’ll break the bit or have a jagged cut. best advice is use a feed/speed calculator or do the math yourself. thats a pro-tip. also ensure you have some sort of chip removal weather that be a jet of air or a dust boot but get those chips out of the cutting path and fast or you’ll ruin the cut.

much trial and error in this i have. :wink: