Acrylic Piece Alterations

Acrylic is a form of plastic that has various uses because of its chemical and physical properties. Some of the items prepared from it are hockey rink barriers, fish tanks, shatter proof glass replacements; sky lights etc. The items made from acrylic are infinite in number. The main features of acrylic are that acrylic plastic is half the weight of glass, has impact resistance, is unaffected by sun or salt spray and the temperature range for continuous service is of -30 to 160° F. Also the cleaning procedure of acrylic is very easy. It can be washed with mild soap or detergent, with plenty of lukewarm water and can be dried with soft cloth or chamois. Oily marks of grease, oil or tar can be easily removed with hexane or kerosene. The residues which are solvent can be removed by washing immediately. Acrylic sheets are provided with the paper masking films. These films protect the sheets. So these sheets are left over for maximum possible time. Metal cutting saw blades and drills are used as these are ground for acrylic sheet. Also the tools used are sharp so that cutting can be done at ease and without making any scratches on other parts of the sheet. A coolant is used for cutting of thick sheets. Coolant can be water or any drilling oil. Also the acrylic sheets are made wet before cleaning. One precaution while cutting acrylic is that saw blades with side-set teeth are not used. 0° of rake should be used to ideally ground the saw and the teeth should be of be of uniform height and shape.

The cutting procedure for cutting of acrylic sheets is same as that of glass. Tools that are used include scribing knife, a metal scriber, an awl, or a utility knife. The scriber is drawn several times that is approximately seven or eight times for a sheet of 3/16" thickness along a straight edge held firmly in place. The sheet is clamped and held under a straight edge with the scribe mark hanging just over the edge of a table. Finally downward pressure has to be applied to break the sheet. The breakage is along the scribe line. The sharp corners are scraped to make them smooth. But this method can not be used for thick and long acrylic sheets. Several kind of special blades are available in the market for cutting of acrylic. In case of unavailability of special blades the blades used to cut copper and aluminum can also be used. But they should have fine teeth of the same height which are evenly spaced and with little or no set. Table and circular saws can also be used.


Article Source :http://infopool.webverve.com/