Opinions Wanted Can I polish plexi edges easily?

[LeMieuxGalleries]

I am about to fulfill a large order of double layered plexi hung with MBS standoffs...thinking it will be a lot easier if I learn how to polish the edges myself. SO anyone have a good tutorial for me to follow?? Or suggested full-proof tool to use?

Will also need to drill the holes into the plexi, which I haven't ever had to do yet, so anything I need to know before tackling this, like certain style drill bits?

Unless someone has a standoff source that will custom cut conservation grade plexi instead??

 

[Larry Peterson]

You need plastic drill bits to drill plexi like these: https://www.tapplastics.com/product/supplies_tools/plastic_tools_supplies/tap_plasdrill_bits/161 . A regular drill bit will crack the acrylic.

To polish the edges you can wet sand them with grits starting at about 220 and work your way up to 800. Then polish with a wheel buffer and polishing compound.

You can find standoffs many places including here: http://888mfgcorp.com/standoffs.aspx

 

[alacrity8]

A few years ago I had to do a half dozen of these for a client.
I needed the drill bits, but they seemed pricey.
After looking up the specs, it seems the only real difference between a regular drill bit, and a plexi drill bit is the tip angle.
I had plenty of large bits gathering dust, so took a bit to my belt sander, and reshaped the tip to the desired angle. It worked great.

I would not recommend trying to make your own glass cutting drill bits.

Good luck with your project.

 

[Acrylic Queen]

We call this a "sandwich" frame. We make them of course as we do customer acrylic manufacturing. There is a special bit for drilling acrylic, what we use is a KEO / centerline drill bit. We have several different sizes. The most often used is a #4 I believe but look at all the sizes. You will need to go to a tool supply for this bit. Home Depot and such do not have them. This bit is VERY sharp and we usually dull it down a little before using it on acrylic. It starts with a small hole and is a counter sink bit so the hole will get larger after the initial drilling. There are a few things you should know about drilling acrylic. How fast you drill is important because going too fast will cause the acrylic to crack and too slow will cause a build up of melted acrylic on the bit. Practice before you drill the actual pieces you intend to drill. When drilling a sandwich frame BOTH pieces should be taped together and drilled at the same time. We have a method for how we prepare the edges of the sandwich frame of course and our frames have NO saw marks in the edge. We cut bevel, and sand several times with various wet & dry sandpapers and then polish. Making a really good sandwich frame is time consuming. In most cases it isn't worth you time to do all that is required with the tools necessary just isn't worth doing yourself. If we can be of service please give us a call. We are a wholesale manufacturer and we have been serving the picture framing industry in all things acrylic for more than 45 years.

 

[artfolio]

This definitely sounds like a job for a specialist with the right equipment and the experience to do it well and reasonably quickly.

Going the DIY route may well lead to tears in several different ways, thinking lost time, wasted materials, unhappy client who wanted it yesterday"........................

Farming it out and making a decent percentage for yourself plus the hanging charge would be much better unless you will be doing enough of these in the future to justify buying the tools and learning the process.

 

[snafu]

I've seen company's flame polish edges on an acrylic box