First Acrylic cut - Advice please

My first square was 50%. At 12mm DOC, granted. So I don’t know if that would help with making longer 2mm cuts.

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Am trying this, generated gcode seems to match what I’m expecting/wanting…

Yes that works for whole operations.
There is no separation for different DOC steps for a single operation within Estlcam.
My 12mm hole may need 6 cuts at 2mm DOC each. Estlcam treats all those cuts as a single operation and doesn’t have a text category that would inject in between levels.

You can do multiple 2mm paths with different starting depths, then you have single operations.

Create multiple overlapping paths right?
I was thinking of that as an option.
If I was only doing a single hole then I might do that.
I’m actually thinking of trying to do the YZ plate for the LR3 in acrylic.
Creating a single path per part/hole and creating separate gcode with different starting depths might be easier.

Sí. :motorway:

Another test
Wanted to see how long I could run a 2mm carve. I did change feed rate and troch width so a couple of changed variables.
Settings: 2mm depth, feed 55mm/s, Troch Stepover 20%, Troch Width 50%, Oscillation 0.1
I ran a zig zag route (from right to left in photo)
The estimates were that this would take 50 seconds. cncjs says it was 10 minutes.
Regardless, after a short section of clean cuts (about the same linear length as my little square tests) the bit started accumulating melted acrylic and the cut started to deteriorate.

The bit:

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Looooooots of airflow helps. Keeps things cool.

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Is that acrylic or butter?!

Those chips look nice and cool.
What were your settings for that cut?

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I posted them on youtube.
1/8" endmill running at 15mm/s at a 1mm depth of cut. Single flute upcut carbide endmill. Using the blue tape and superglue hold down technique with screws as just in cases.

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Thanks
I see that now when I go to YouTube to watch. I just watched it embedded here and didn’t see the subtext.

Going to try it next although a non-trochoidal cut was what I started with and it didn’t work.

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Mist cooling might help…

Yeah, cooling does help, but that’s not the goal as far as I understood the thread. :sweat_smile:

Gotta keep the chips out of the cut, air blast or really good vac.

Success!
This is 12mm thick acrylic

No trochoidal
Single flute upcut
Feed 45 mm/s
Rpm setting on Makita about 3.75
1mm deep cut
Pause after cut and brush crumbs away
Brush crud off bit if any
Sometimes rerun cut to clear out debris as the cut gets deeper

2mm x 2mm tabs on bottom 2 cuts

I’m sure a compressor will help as the bit would accumulate some material where it met the surface.

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Man, i never ever got those bits to work on acrylic or aluminum. Much prefer the short ones Ryan sells. The flute is open, and the chips fly right out.

Maybe I should read this thread first, but I am a bit tired atm. To me it looks like you are using the wrong type of acrylic that causes melted plastic. There’s cast and extruded acrylic, the one melts easy and the other one doesn’t.

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This could be true.
The only selection criteria I used was do I have it or not.
I don’t know what type it is.
Also, looking closer at Ryan’s single flute upcut bit I think the angle of the flute on mine is shallower. There are more turns in a given length meaning it won’t be as effective at clearing.
In the end, I think making the yz plates is doable but a slow process.

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Neither do I know what my acrylic is, but good point Olivier! The one from the Hornbach is usually extruded, but the one I used for my project might have been cast. It used to be one of those plastic Corona protetion booths that my school got rid of. :smiley:

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You’re welcome!
I’ve looked up my notes and cast acrylic is the one you need as the extruded one melts indeed.

I have no idea how you can see the difference if there’s no product label on it.

In case you’re interested I logged my experiences here; Acrylic on LR2
I currently use a random single flute upcut bit. I even bought expensive dedicated acrylic bits, but they are for high speed routers and my LR2 can’t handle it. So these are stored away hoping to finish my lr3 one day to try them again or to throw them in the bin.

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