Actually, this acrylic is good quality and behaves well when working on it. As a child, umpty years ago(!), we used to made things at school with Perspex and I have always had the confidence to work with it. My approach was to work on the detached panel with its protective covering in place and marking the cut; if it had been removed I would have used painters' tape along the length. Drilling was a gentle process of gradually increasing in size from a small start, 2mm, progressing to about 6mm maximum, using a hand drill that you wind yourself and drilling from both sides for the larger drills. I then used a wire saw make a start in the direction of cut then changed to a fine blade saw, all the time ensuring the panel was well supported along the whole length; the secret in not to force tools through the plastic, particularly with drilling. Finishing was with a smooth file and emery paper and a final polish with brass cleaner.
Too fast and aggressive angle of attack on the blades I'd say...it can't carve plastic at that speed so it'd more likely chip at it.....wouldn't go well in my opinion.
Actually one way you might get away with it would be to clamp it between two layers of ply and make an acrylic sandwich....but I'd still not do that
I have used my router on acrylic for my fish tanks no problem just never perspex its rather common in the DIY fish tank world.
Definitely not! You do need slow speed of cutting, otherwise it will heat up the acrylic which will then grab at the tool with undesirable results!
**Edited to add content** This is from the Perspex Design Guide http://www.perspex.co.uk/Perspex/media/Media/Technical Library/Product Brochures/Perspex-DESIGN-GUIDE-EN-LR.pdf 1.1.9 Spindle Moulding A spindle moulder is a useful machine for the rapid machining of Perspex®. Cutters designed for woodworking are suitable, two-bladed cutters being preferred. Spindle moulding is carried out dry as swarf is easy to remove. 1.1.10 Routing Routing is a common machining operation used on Perspex® today. Fixed head, moving head or portable standard woodworking routers are suitable for Perspex® using the same cutter speeds as for wood. Double edged cutters are preferred, ground and honed with a back clearance angle of about 12° or more. Cutters 6 to 12mm diameter or less ca 24000 RPM >12 Spindle Speed ca 18000 RPM Routing is usually performed dry but provision must be made to clear all swarf from the work bench and keep the cutter cool. A compressed air jet directed at the work piece usually performs this task. HSS cutters give better results than TCT cutters although their life will be shorter. Regular sharpening is therefore necessary. Guess I should have looked before asking lol sorry
I take it all back but I note that large back clearance on the cutter is needed, something that cheap Chinese cutters tend to lack, and cooling, which I do agree is essential. Spindle moulders are not like hand routers as they do allow better control of the part motion, so if you have a router table, the right cutters and cooling then who am I to say don't do it?
I have both guess I could have specified router table heh. The bit I have I generally just to clean up edges but it should be able to do a bit of cutting too. For aquariums you need to use cell cast acrylic and you need very clean edged to join to form a solid bubble free seam. The bottom piece is typically slightly oversize and a finish pass with a hand router to even it up. I haven't rigged any special cooling before but I do have a small compressor I could probable rig to do the job.