Drilling Holes In Acrylic Sheets

Drilling holes in acrylic sheet.

Drilling holes in acrylic sheets.

Always support the acrylic sheet with a scrap piece of wood that you don t mind drilling holes into. There are precautions that you must take to ensure that the. Failing that you have 2 other options on sheet plexi besides a step bit. Acrylic drill bits are available for drill presses.

This will avoid cracking which may damage the entire sheet. Press only lightly on the drill the drill must sink itself through the material. The chip should break off immediately. Standard metal drill bits will work but without extensive modification the metal drill bit will crack and chip the brittle acrylic sheet.

Drilling plexiglas is similar to drilling wood. Before you embark on drilling the main hole you should consider starting with a pilot hole. Zero flute countersinks work well for the countersinking and deburring of holes in acrylic sheet. If this is not the case the drill is too slow.

When you start the drilling process ensure that the hole is away from the edge of the plexiglass. The pilot hole should be at least 1 2 the diameter of the final hole. Drilling holes in acrylic requires the use of a drill bit specially designed for use with plastics. You could drill progressively larger holes but in my experience this can cause chipping around the edges of the hole.

On any hole much larger than 1 8 you can drill a 1 8 pilot hole then route the hole out with a dremel tool. Support the drill well when it is almost. Here you will discover which drill bits are suitable for p. You can finish the hole directly if you have a routing table.

Place the drill perpendicular to the acrylic sheet and set the drill to medium speed immediately. If your sheet is thick do peck drilling going a little at the time so that you can remove the shavings from your hole and allow the drill time to cool. However there are a few things to keep in mind. If a countersink is unavailable use a drill of larger diameter than the hole and deburr the rough edge on the exit side of the hole side where the drill came through the sheet.

Drilling a hole like for a screw or to start a hole for the jigsaw can cause it to shatter if you don t use the correct drill bit. While you are drilling through the plexiglass sheet the friction would produce intense heat and the bits would cause lots of plastic shavings around the hole especially if the sheet is thick.