Easiest way to cut acrylic?

[MadHa77er]

hey everyone, i was just wondering what the easiest way to cut acrylic into disc shapes. they would be about 6 or 7 inches in diameter.

thanks,
rob

[dgrmkrp]

dremel... or hot knive... :) i recommend dremel :)

[fragged]

disc as in the way a CD is? There are drill bits for that

FYI there are drill bits that will destroy the inside of a hole, and there are some that will cut around circlular shape and leave the inside intact

[GT40_GearHead]

7 inches =15.2 centimeters

the largest hole saw i have is 5" and its for wood

my 0.002$ tell me that the best way to do this is to:
- cut, rough disc from the acrylic sheet
- make a hole in its centre
- put a bolt in the hole
- after you inserted the bolt in the acrilc thread the nut on the bolt
- clamp the bolt in the bigest drill you can get your hands on
- slowly rotate the disc by powering the dril
- after you get to a speed you feel safe, start do sand the edge of the disc
- sand until you get to the size you want

hope this helps;)

[tybrenis]

How thick would it be? You might be able to just score and snap it using a template.

Otherwise... I would rough cut it on a bandsaw or scroll saw, then sand down the edges on a 6" belt sander or perhaps a disc sander. There are a lot of ways to do it, it just depends.

How many do you need? Can you have a hole in the center? How thick is the acrylic? What is your budget? What tools do you all ready have? You'll have to let us know that first.