I was looking for some tips for cutting polycarbonate. I already ordered a Solid Carbide Upcut Spiral O Flute bit that I saw someone suggest, but other than that I am looking for some tips on feed / speed / DoC. Any advice would be great since I only have one piece so I have to do it on the first shot.
Thanks in Advanced
When I get home I’ll take a look at the setting I used for cutting 1/4" polycarbonate. What size spiral o bit are you using?
1/8 in cutting diameter. Here is the link.
I had great luck with 2000mm/min and .5mm DOC. This was using a 1 flute upcut spiral bit that came with the starter set.
I also left the protective covering on both top and bottom of the sheet, and used carpet tape to stick it to the work board. I left my Dewalt set on 1 and kept a vacuum handy.
I was able to cut about 100 “coins” out of 2mm hardware store lexan in half an hour or so. It took longer to get them off the board than it did to cut them.
I ran a 1/4" single flute upcut at about 25IPM with a depth of cut at 0.05" per pass. I left the bottom protective cover on, but removed the top. I’ve had bad experience where that cover pulls up and wraps around the spindle destroying it. Happened to me twice. Definitely used double stick tape to hold it down.
