Drilling/Cutting acrylic, Safe?

[lchyi]

If I use a dremel and cut an exhaust port in a window and drill the holes for it, will it crack easily or split after that? I'll be going for two exhaust ports in a Lanboy window and I want to know if that's cutting too much out of it.

 

[chibchakan]

Bump cause I wanna know too.

 

[HiTek21]

it wont crack unless you apply too much pressure to the window. Just becareful because acrylic will melt if you put the dremel or drill on high speeds. Also you'll want to mask off the entire window around the area you want to cut because it'll get scratched easily.

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, use slow speeds on plastics to avoid scorching or melting.
.bh.
:moon:

 

[lchyi]

So since a hole saw is insanely hot, that's a no go?

 

[0roo0roo]

might be a good idea to pour some water on it every now and then while hole sawing plastic. or so i've heard.

 

[GAZZA]

What you might want to do is to use masking tape around the area your cutting and then mark out the hole your cutting to save scratching for starters and should help reduce the chance of cracking/splitting.

Best method would be to use a hole saw at slow speeds.