Cutting polycarbonate sheeting and 6mm acrylic sheets

[Daniel B]

Hello again,

At Easter I am going to have some 25mm polycarbonate sheeting to cut, and also some 6mm thick solid acrylic I am thinking of using to replace the current windows in my prefab garage.

I have had a look online, and the best choice for cutting acrylic seems to be either a circular saw or a standard jigsaw - with suitable blades.

What I was wondering is whether a circular saw would also be a suitable tool for cutting polycarbonate sheeting, or whether that is best to be done by hand?

The tool I have seen, once again from Amazon is this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SKIL-F01551...r_1_277?ie=UTF8&s=diy&qid=1266876120&sr=1-277

A wise buy........?

If I do buy it, is it just a case of sourcing any 170mm blade that is suitable for acrylics??

Or am I best off to cut the polycarbonate by hand, and get a specialist blade for the jigsaw, such as a Bosch T101A?

Many thanks

Dan

 

[seco services]

think i would stick with the jigsaw.
wouldn't fancy my luck using a circular saw.

 

[Burnerman]

Use a fine tooth blade if you can, put masking tape over the line that you wish to cut (both sides) and hold the sheet down so it doesn't chatter when you are cutting.
25mm thick polycarbonate?? Is this tri wall stuff, rather than solid? You may find heat build up a problem here, causing the plastic chips to weld back together, so cut slow.
Try both a jig saw and a circular saw to see which does a better job.
Acrylic will tend to splinter more than polycarbonate.
John

 

[Daniel B]

Thanks chaps,

I'm thinking maybe circular saw is going to be more trouble that it's worth - partly the bargain price caught my eye, I am a sucker for a bargain!

25mm sheeting - sorry not solid - it's this type of stuff

Fingers crossed I will only have one cut to make for the polycarbonate sheeting, but that one cut will be a 6m long one

My gf's dad fitted some 10mm sheeting and cut it with a hand saw - a tenon saw I think he said.

And after looking at the description of the Bosch 101A jigsaw bit, it only says for up to depths of 20mm, so this can't do the polycarbonate sheeting as well, but I am hopeful this will be suitable for the 6mm acrylic sheeting.

I am buying one 5m sheet to cut into 4, and one 2.5m one to make the final window. so there will be a good few metres of cutting to be done.

Cheers

Dan

 

[ladylola]

You may find heat build up a problem here, causing the plastic chips to weld back together, so cut slow.

Seen just that thing happen before, we watch a fitter cut straight through a sheet with a jigsaw and when he was finished he still had a full sheet

The solution was to simply use a handsaw, just a cheap trowaway, but whatever you do make sure the sheets are well supported to prevent flapping about when you cut as this can often lead to cracks and breakages.

 

[gregers]

i too only use a hand saw,let the saw do the work.keep the angle shallow and do not rush.
or if you have the facilitys you could use a bench saw.

 

[Daniel B]

Thanks all,

Gregers - am I right to think you are using the handsaw for the polycarbonate sheets and not the acrylic??

Cheers

Dan

 

[gregers]

both m8,as already posted using a jigsaw you could end up snapping the material,a skil saw will probably melt it and snag,
sometimes using power tools can end up causing you more problems then they solve,but this is my opinion.

 

[Bodgeit and scarper ltd]

saw bench with diamond tip tile cutter blade

 

[foxhole]

The correct jigsaw blade will cut without problem, they don't have a blade but a rasp type structure.They open a wide gap so it cannot melt back together behind blade.