Plexiglass

Chainer's picture
I was wondering about the pro's and con's of plexiglass and how exactly one would go about cutting it if one did go with it.
robologist's picture

Lexan aka polycarbonate better

Plexiglass has a tendancy to splinter and crack if drilled or cut wrong. Polycarbonate is much more forgiving.
Calculon320's picture

where lexan?

Where would I pick up a sheet of polycarbonate?
robologist's picture

Polycarbonate and acrylic are ...

Both available in Home Depot or Lowes near the windows and glass. Usually there is a sectoin on an aisle that has a large glass/plastic sheet cutter, and bins beside it that have various sizes of polycarb and acrylic. I've gotten the 8" x 10" sizes recently (about the size of a window pane) and seem to remember that plexi is around a $1.50 and Lexan is $1.75 in those sizes. They can cut it for you to different sizes too, but you stiil pay for the sheet it came out of. I imagine other hardware stores, craft stores, and even picture framing stores would have something similar.
Nicola's picture

I use something like

I use something like plexyglass that is advertised as "syntetic glass". I don't know the composition, but is very clear. It can be saw with a regular saw and drilled with a driller :) It doesn't crack while sawing if you pay just a little attention. Comes for 3.80 € for 25x50 cm. See my robots for more info :)

Setix's picture

Ebay is your friend

Polycarbonate is available on ebay like crazy...even Lexan. I bought some nice half inch thick sheets from an ebay store for a vacuum chamber that I built so I could cast parts.

 

Also if you place a strip of masking tape along your cut line and use a fine tooth carbide blade you will reduce chipping and melting....just go slowly and cut through the tape

BaseOverApex's picture

On this note

Is Plexiglass acrylic?

Is Lexan polycarbonate?

robologist's picture

Yeppers

Commercial names of physical products, like Kleenix tissue, or Coke for cola
BaseOverApex's picture

Uh-huh

Yes, but I'm trying to equate the trade names to the actual material.

Is Plexiglass acrylic?

Is Lexan polycarbonate?

In fact, is acrylic an example of a polycarbonate?

Setix's picture

Nope...

In fact, is acrylic an example of a polycarbonate?

 

Nope. Polycarbonate groups are compounds linked by a carbonate molecule O-C=O-O, acrylic how ever is poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA)...ofcourse there are different various of each, much like metal alloys. 

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