Acrylic cutting and carving

[AlanDavis]

Acrylic Cutting Tips

Acrylic is hard to cut! I’ve mainly been working on clear acrylic. So far, I’ve had the best results using the straight 2 flute bit (the one sold here on Inventables and included in my End Mill Starter set) at a feed rate of 40in/min, 0.02" deep passes. This works great up until about 3/16" deep, when there begins to be a lot of material against the bit that isn’t being cut…just rubbing and generating heat. Then things start to get a bit melty. Small gobs of molten acrylic travel up the bi…