Acrylic Kit... Now What?

Hello All!
So I finally took the plunge and bought the acrylic kit from Ponoko. However, now i'm wondering what the next step is? I have a 3 axis CNC mill, does anyone think it will be possible to cut the parts with that? It's a homebrew but it uses ballscrews and has pretty decent accuracy, except for the runout on my Rotozip...

Does anyone have experience cutting their own pieces of acrylic?

Also, what about using something like UHMW instead of acrylic. I would have to machine it down to 5mm, but it seems easier to work with than acrylic. Anyone have experience with this?

-Mosha

I typically use HDPE, myself. It's lots cheaper

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

Hi Mosha,

... i'm milling mostly POM as it's the perfect material in respect of rigidity and machining without coolant.

For acrylic or PMMA i use a water-soap-alcohol-mixture (refill for car-windshield-washer) as coolant and mill with 2mm-millheads.

Here some samples in 3mm-polycarbonate

1. - milling with coolant:


2. - ready:


3. - in detail:


Viktor

You can also mill acrylic without coolant if you take a light cut and go quickly. Here is an example with a video using a 1/8" cutter travelling at 15mm/s taking 0.1mm cuts.

[hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I also milled an extruder out of acrylic, POM and plastic metal composite, details here: [hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

My edges are probably not as smooth as Viktor's but certainly adequate.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2008 04:10PM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]