Acylic questions

[donek]

I am considering trying to cut and engrave acrylic, but not finding a lot of information with regard to my application. It seems most of the data out there refers to laser cutting and laser engraving.

Are there any types of acrylic that cut nicely with a router? Has anyone here had good luck with light engraving?

I am considering churning out some of these as give away items during races. They would have a lot less engraving, just a simple logo.
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[coryatjohn]

I would think you'd look for the extruded rather then cast material. Most thinner (<3/8") seems to be extruded. Cast will chip more from my experience. Acrylic cuts very nicely but you have to be careful about the speeds and feeds or you'll get melting and messy accumulations on the bit.

For a 1/8" single flute Kyocera bit, I use 14k rpm, 1 - 1.67 ips, 25% step over and .0625 depth. Cost of the bit is about $2, less if you buy them on sale. They last for about 12 hours before starting to get worn. If everything is right, there's almost no sound from the cut.

[Burkhardt]

You can try PETG sheet as well (the stuff they make the really clear water bottles from). Maybe a little more expensive than extruded acrylic but still less than cast acrylic or lexan and it is less finicky with cracking, chipping or melting. If not available locally, McMaster is your friend (http://www.mcmaster.com/#petg/=106rkxx)....

[myxpykalix]

Xxray (forum name here) is who i got acrylic scraps from and seems to be the guy who does alot of stuff like that and would be the guy to talk to

[Alex Naumenko]

We only using cast acrylic for laser and cnc router. Laser it is the way to go. But I got pretty good results with diamond scribe or 45 v carve bit using engraving function in Vectric.

[Xray]

What you want to do here is super simple, but you need the right tool and that is a diamond drag tool.

Yes you can do it with a vbit too but then you have to pay real close attention to depth, which will cause you to lose detail on small vectors and possible melting issues, none of that is a factor with drag bits, well worth the investment if you want to churn out engraved pieces. There are some nice ones on ebay, I don't do any business through them anymore so can't provide a link.
Of course, remember to flip the fonts else they'll be backwards.

A little more of a challenge cutting them out but that is pretty simple too, most any good sharp endmill will do. Could also simply cut them on a table saw if you can live without radiused corners.