Hi
Is there a way to cut acrylic tubing that is 1 3/4" diameter and .119" wall?
Thanks
Mike
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A hacksaw? with a fine blade?
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Thanks
That’s the messy way I have done it. Was seeing if there was a way to cut with Glowforge.
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the GF does not have anywhere near enough power to cut through 1.75" acrylic. i mean, you might be able to with a gazillion passes, but it would be a big, melted slumpy mess where the cut was, not a nice clean cut.
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Hi Shop
I was looking on Youtube and found that the Glowforge would need a rotary tool holder and the options in the software to run it. Then I could cut it.
Mike
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You could run a straight line across, then rotate 90º and run it again - you’d want to jig it in some way so you didn’t move left/right at all. It might also require 4 cuts at 45º instead of 2 at 90º but it’s worth a shot…
I’ve cut many dowels, but they were all under 1/2"
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Hi deirdrebeth
I did a jig and took out the tray and covered the tub with the paper tape but the laser would not focus on the tube correctly. It was off by over an inch and just burn the wood below.
Mike
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it’s not necessarily the rotary, it’s the 1.75" thick. even cutting half that thick at a time using a rotary would be a significant challenge for a 40-45w laser like the GF. i’ve cut 0.5" acrylic before, but it took multiple passes (3-4) and it wasn’t the cleanest cut, even when i took breaks between passes.
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Tubes are generally only between 1/8" and 1/4" thick depending on overall diameter…
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Put in a manual focus (in the individual cut command)
If you haven’t seen the interesting rotary work here:
that might be of interest to you.
I imagine with some of this rotary trickiness you might be able to manage cutting an acrylic tube.
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Hi Jestelle
Thanks I’ll look at it.
Mike
Not sure if the post was updated, but it’s more of a hollow tube it sounds like.
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Yes it tubing and thin wall.