I have a 18x24 sheet of Lexan that I want to cut into a couple of 15x12 pieces. Since others here have worked with Lexan, could you tell us how you cut it? It seems to me that scoring it and then snapping it should work.

Thanks!

Here is a tip...
Use two straight edges side by side and clampt them down if you are going to score it. You will have to make several passes to score it well enough to snap.
I only took 1"x14" off of mine and I had to score it numerous times then snap it off with a hammer. It is tough stuff..

Can be done with a skill saw or rotary cutting tool. Home depot guy told me a skill saw.

Did you happen to ask the HD guy if he had done it himself? I am concerned about the Lexan melting under the high-speed friction and pressure of a power saw blade or drill-type cutter.

Use a straight edge score it with a box cutter or with a fine knife several times half way through.Then snap it off with your hand. It is easy.When you snap keep that straight edge under the lexan sheet align with the cut line.

SkillSaw? Heh... I'd rather cut sheet metal with a skill saw than lexan...

did it with a jigsaw that had a very fine cut blade. I used a 3/4 strip of mdf as a guide for the saw. Came out perfect. No rough edges.

I just did mine with the table saw, and it worked fine.

I actually meant a jigsaw, sorry. However, the HD guy was using a table saw.

Use a scoring knife sold right next to the lexan

The trouble with a skill/ table saw cut is chipping. I just cut some on a table saw with the blade turned around and it cut fine. Its a lot less agressive but cut without grabbing. Its a little trick an old guy taught me.

I used a band saw. I have made several windshields for my motorcycle. Just go slow.

Ahhhh.... The ol' reverse blade trick.
I have used this in the past to cut tin with. It's the most awful sound imagineable, but it does the trick. Kind of dangerous though.

actually you would find it much easier with a coarse blade, the lexan would tend to clog a fine blade which generates heat and increases cutting effort - the more cutting effort the greater the risk of snapping a blade or messing the cut. A fine tooth blade won't mean a fine finish in a lot of cases either, it's how the teeth are set which determines the cut finish.

I've used snapping, jigsaw, scroll saw, table saw, radial saw, bandsaw to cut lexan and have to say the bandsaw does the best job for straight cuts and you can't beat a scroll saw for cutting shapes.

has anyone tried a cutting bit with a dremel or all in one cutting tool?

My experiences with acrylic and lexan cutting:

Dremel - cuts well, but slowly, and you have to have forearm endurance to keep it straight

Jigsaw - cuts very fast, extremely easy to keep it straight, though you have to keep it slow enough that it removes all the material. If you go too fast, the chips/fibers that make their way to the back end of the blade partially re-bond behind the hot metal (More of an annoyance than a problem, easy to break off/redo).

Chipping has never been a problem for me because the material is too flexible, not brittle enough, and melting has never been major problem[IE, deforming the material] because it's too good of a thermal insulator[though you WILL have to snap off pieces of partially melted plastic, corresponding to the thickness of your cuts]. Outright cracking has - jigsaws get very violent if you take them too far away from your clamped surface and they start to catch. My preferred method is to place a large piece on a table, and pull it off slowly while applying pressure, with the jigsaw cutting perpendicular to the table edge an inch or two away from the edge. Leave the protective masking plastic on when you cut.

Score+Smash: Not a good solution for me. Far too inexact of a science, even when you score several dozen times + break using the edge of a table as your fulcrum. Produces curved edges that usually follow SOME PART of the score, but not all of it. Also easy to produce cracking. Much more applicable on very thin cuts (I might even consider using this if I wanted to cut a 1-2" wide bar in half).

I used a hammer and flat head screw driver. Pretty ugly cut though.

I used a big pair of steel cutting pliers (yellow handle with curved teeth)

I used a metal cutting bandsaw and that worked out nice. Relatively safe too.

I cut it with a tablesaw, it sounds like it's going to chip, but it made a perfect cut.

Used it just like this :

I used a carpet knife and a steel ruler. Six passes and I was able to snap it clean.

Okay. I finally cut the Lexan today, using a RotoZip. I used a 2x4 as both a clamping brace and a guide for the RotoZip. Easy, lovely straight line cut.

I uses the tool that was next to the Plexi at Home depot. The trick is to pull the tool so it sorta digs in like a hoe and removes more material. After a few passes I just snapped it off. Easy, and no power tools required. Although as you can see in the pic it’s clamped to a table saw. I also have assess to a band saw, jig saw miter / circular saw and a few others. I just wasn’t sure if the material would chip or shatter witch is why i choose the "score and snap" method.



-=Plog comming soon.=-

Oh and, now that it's cut, I put a very small "L" in one corner of the coated "Light-side" of the Lexan with a permanent marker, just in case I should remove the Lexan for some reason and then not be able to tell which side is which. I chose "L" not only because it stands for "Light" (or "Lexan" or "Lumenlab", etc.), but because other letters would look the same upside down and/or backwards, A, B, C, etc...

Print the word CHOICE in all caps on a piece of paper and hold it up to a mirror (turn it upside down) and what do you see? -- "CHOICE" !! (Please do not interpret this as a political stand or opinion.)