Cutting acrylic on the bandsaw: a retrospective

Machine Shop
1

Just in case someone else runs across the need to cut acrylic on the bandsaw, I thought I’d post my results.

I tried several cuts with the “fine” blade (I’ve forgotten what Bryan told me it was in TPI), and my material was about 1/8" thick.

On the high range at 600-ish, it felt like it was chipping away/catching on the material instead of cutting smoothly. Increasing the speed to 1200-1300 did the trick and cut very nicely without melting. Travel speed was sufficient to get the cut done without shoving the material into the blade. (I doubt I could actually “bog” this beast down, so that can’t be used to gauge the load.)

So, for what it’s worth: High speed 1200-1300, fine pitch blade.

7 Likes
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Here’s a good source of info on cutting acrylic on various devices, including bandsaw, scroll saw, etc. It’s kind of like Goldilocks and the 3 bears - speed too fast? you melt the cut…speed too slow, you get a ragged cut. Similar issues re: right kind of blade (a function of thickness). Having worked with a ton of acrylic, the smoothest cut I ever got with a bandsaw was using a thin waste board underneath, e.g. masonite.

https://system.netsuite.com/core/media/media.nl?id=1755&c=621686&h=9a743cf55d18dd32885e&_xt=.pdf&ck=QLfTciYlAmy162v3&vid=QLfTciYlAnK16zjK&cktime=140582&_ga=1.24853818.1633850819.1453157237

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That’s a really good reference source. Thanks!