Drilling Holes In Acrylic Sheets

Before you start drilling you ought to place a barrier below the plexiglass.

Drilling holes in acrylic sheets.

Ensure you go slow stop often to cool the drill and always support the sheet. Drilling large holes to drill a hole in acrylite sheet greater than 1 25 4 mm a circle cutter may be used. This barrier may be a piece of wood that you would not mind drilling into. However the likelihood of melting chipping cracking or breaking the acrylic is much higher.

Press only lightly on the drill the drill must sink itself through the material. The chip should break off immediately. Drilling holes in acrylic requires the use of a drill bit specially designed for use with plastics. The cutter bit must also be modified to accommodate the material properties of acrylic.

This barrier will help avoid cracking of the sheet when drilling the final hole. Standard metal drill bits will work but without extensive modification the metal drill bit will crack and chip the brittle acrylic sheet. It is possible to drill acrylic with regular metal drill bits. If this is not the case the drill is too slow.