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magazines
04-02-2014, 02:07 PM
Hi All,
I'm newbie here and have what I hope is a very basic question.
We need to cut some acrylic (solid color and mirrored) on our 4x8 shopbot. The thing is that we need to cut it at a bevel, and not one that is easily accomplished with the 90 and 60 degree v-carve bits we have. We need to cut several hundred pieces at a 7 degree bevel,9 degree, 11 degree, 13 degree, etc. It is pieces to clad the outside of a faceted column.
We could do the initial cuts on the shopbot and then take all the pieces over to the table saw, but it sure would be nicer to just have the shopbot take care of it all.
So can I get bits for acrylic to cut odd shallow bevels?
We found this:
http://www.amazon.com/Whiteside-SC50-Carving-Liner-degree/dp/B0012K7154/ref=pd_sbs_indust_6
But I doubt that it would work well on acrylic, right?

To clarify, these cuts are close to 90 degrees from face of material, not almost parallel to face.
Thanks much for any guidance that folks can provide!
magazines

zeykr
04-02-2014, 03:37 PM
Call whiteside or vortex or one of the bit mfg about custom grinding some v bits for you. Sounds like you are doing enough to make it worthwhile.

Alex Naumenko
04-03-2014, 10:39 AM
I hope that will help.
http://www.amanatool.com/cncroutingdetails/rc-2370.html

joe
04-05-2014, 08:10 AM
Gotta laugh.

There's no way to give advice on a question like this without knowing the number of pieces and sizes.

From what's been described so far it looks like a table saw job. But who knows. If these are 1" square pieces in lots of dozens a CNC might be a choice.

magazines
04-05-2014, 11:52 AM
I hope that will help.
http://www.amanatool.com/cncroutingdetails/rc-2370.html
Hi Alex,
Thanks very much. That looks like just the thing we need!
I see that this one is for wood and we need acrylic, but I also see it has replaceable blades. Possibly they can put a profile in there that will work with acrylic. We will be following up with Amana.
Thanks
magazines

magazines
04-05-2014, 11:54 AM
Call whiteside or vortex or one of the bit mfg about custom grinding some v bits for you. Sounds like you are doing enough to make it worthwhile.
Hi Ken,
Thanks, we will contact these folks to see what they can make for us. I just thought that low angle stock bits might be out there for acrylic. It sounds like it is a more specialized item. Certainly we've never done this before.
magazines

magazines
04-05-2014, 11:59 AM
Gotta laugh.

There's no way to give advice on a question like this without knowing the number of pieces and sizes.

From what's been described so far it looks like a table saw job. But who knows. If these are 1" square pieces in lots of dozens a CNC might be a choice.
Hi Joe,
aaah, problem is that beyond what my original post says, we just can't say. They want us to clad 4 columns to begin with. Then it could be 10 or 12, if they decide to continue with the project.
We have done the tests with the table saw thus far. Up to 45 different facets around a 10" high section of column. So that was 90 cuts on the table saw for the 10". You can probably see why even with the jig we made, this is looking pretty tedious and wasteful of money. And they want several of these approx 10" segments to be 80-100 pieces. At that point, they do get down to the 1" width, and thats 160-200 cuts.

So, as your post says, if it was a cnc job, what bit would you recommend for acrylic? Any particular manufacturer? We've used onsrud mostly to this point, but don't know if they are best for odd bits or custom things.
Thanks