Whew! Well done. So many 'how to' videos simply fill the air with unnecessary chatter. This was clean, straight and to the point. Proven by the "Because I'm tired of this demo" comment! Thank you!
Thank you! You helped save me $100. I broke a drawer on our new fridge. With your tips, I was able to drill holes and attach brackets to fix the drawer.
To drill acrylic without chipping and cracking, a twist drill needs to be sharpened with rake angle closer to zero so as to produce more of a scraping action, rather than cutting. By sharpening the drill bit the way you have, in effect achieves the same result, although I prefer to leave the conventional point angle on the drill and 'dub' the cutting edge. Either way works. The reason step drills are so good for acrylic is that by the nature of their design, they already have zero rake angle at the edges that do all the cutting. A similar principle applies to drilling brass.
Oh! Great tips! I was aware that there are special acrylic drill bits that have a much higher point angle but never tried to sharpen one for that. And never ever would have thought that it is so easy. Super nice!!! Thanks again! I had great luck with new, clean steel drillbits with slightly dull cutting flutes/tip (just a few strokes with a diamond file or 400grid sandpaper)
Cheers! I hope your prototyping tips channel takes off, you do great stuff. I kinda gave up on YT after a while... perhaps I'll start posting again someday.
I've found that even conventional drills work well to create smooth holes when lubricated (and cooled) with water and a little dish soap (say, 1% to 10%). I've even used this to drill very deep holes, 5 to 10 times the drill diameter, but you do need to keep backing the drill out to clear the chips, and do keep the hole flooded with the lubricant with a brush or squeeze bottle. As noted, slow speeds work best, but not TOO slow or the plastic can begin to fracture instead of cut. (I've modified my drill press to use a dc motor, with fixed voltage on the shunt field winding and a variable dc voltage on the armature for speed control, minimizing the need for pulley changes and allowing spindle speeds down to a few RPM. The armature supply also has an adjustable current limit, allowing the stall torque to be set independently, which I find handy at times to minimize damage to the work.)
Wish I had watched this video before breaking my $20 sheet of plexi-glass today ^_^ Thank you though, I am looking forward to getting this job done right with your help.
Hey Dane & Rachael, sorry to hear about your plexi. I know the feeling having ruined quite a bit of it myself. Please let us all know how it works out, and good luck!
Summary: 1. Sharpen drill bit to a point, or use step drills for larger holes. 2. Fully support the sheet with plywood backing. (You will drill through to the wood.) 3. Use low rpm. 4. Lubricate the bit with dish soap.
Having done this for years, I will share: A regular drill bit is fine, but it must be sharp and web thinned. If you don't know how to sharpen a drill, learn, or buy a jig. Next, do NOT use battery powered drills, they are too slow. Drill presses are best as they are stable and allow for clamping the workpiece firmly over a solid cutable substrate, like wood. If you don't have a press, use an corded electric drill. Example: to drill a 5mm hole in acrylic requires a speed of 2500 r/m, which a cord drill will do, whereas battery drills run at 1500 max. Next, it's the feed. Slow feed, clearing often. If you feed too fast, the acrylic will melt, if the drill is blunt it will melt, no matter what you do. Hope this helps someone.
WOW,,fantastic short video; without all the high tech talk on how and why, your explanations and samples on the video are right to the point; i want to build a box for a project and I don't have the money to buy a piece 2 x 4 of PVC at Home Depot; my neighbor through out a piece of Plastic Acrylic and it was like my blessing until I realized it's brittle and will crack easily if you don't know how to handle it, RU-vid and Vice Chief provided that bridge I needed to feel confident my project will be a success; I will come back & let you know how it went; Thank You Michael C.
Very helpful! I had to modify my new name-badge for work to accept the old badge's clip thing, and this helped a lot. I didn't sharpen my bit any, but I did start my holes by drilling in reverse and then flicked it to forward and it came out clean as a whistle
For absolue best result, have your piece backed by another piece of acrylic rather than wood. If done right, the bit never even realizes it has gone through the piece and you have a perfect hole, ( :
Very useful tutorial. Thanks! Do you have any suggestion/recommendation for reinforcing such holes in 6mm thick acrylic? I'm thinking maybe grommets or eyelets?
Thank you for sharing these tips! What's your thoughts on a "Plastic Drill Pack"? I feel a lot more confident about drilling into the flanged of an acrylic dome for mounting.
Step drills are great for all kinds of thin stock. They don’t get sucked in on break through like a fluted twist drill. Chose one with steps taller than the stock thickness or the holes will be stepped.
I wonder how well this would work on 1/8" thick cardboard and a step drill bit on making a replacement old tube type wood radio rear cover? Tubes got pretty warm so some source of ventilation and protection from touching anything back there when it is on would be needed. Great ideas here !
I have a 28mm hole I need to enlarge to a 30mm hole in a sheet of thin acrylic. I am terrified it will crack. Do they make step bits the size I'm looking for, 30mm (1.1811 inch)? If not, what would you recommend? Thanks.
Excellent video and information!! Do you have any suggestions for drilling odd shapes? Making a faceplate using Lexan sheet in which I want to make holes for XT60 and XT90 connectors.
Do i have to have a surface beneath where I am drilling into when drilling acrylic? Or can the acrylic hang off of a surface and I drill from there without the wood underneath?
Now, i need to counterbore the holes for hex socket head cap screws in thicker material, good tips to get me started - see they make different taps as well
Recently I have been using chainsaw chain lubricant for all of my metal drilling. It has a kind of weird viscosity like snail snot. I wonder how it would work with acrylic rather than dish soap? Might be worth a try.
Wonderful tip. This is what I am looking for. I hope to drill 5mm x 48 holes for 4 pieces of acrylic 3mm thick sheet, for my Anycubic Pulley 3D printer. I will search for my step drill bit. If I can't find it, will have no choice but to Diy a metal bit.
Dish soap works for sure but be aware of the potential for rust on tooling. You’ll need a rust inhibitor. I use WD40 and get a very fine edge. For hand sawing acrylic,I use 3 in 1 oil. Saw blade is less “grabby” with the oil.
Good points - another thing to consider is that some acrylics and other plastics will "craze" with the solvents in some aerosols. As always, it's a good idea to do a test on a piece you don't care about,.
Great video. Do you think a Forstner bit also be suitable, especially if a thicker piece requires only drilling 'partially' through depth-wise and also requires a flat bottomed hole, instead of one that goes right through (granted, there will still be a small entrance hole in the middle of the flat, although don't think that can be avoided unless a 'milling bit' is somehow used, then these are less easy to 'locate' and drill with I'd imagine!)? I wonder how the finish would be using the Forstner anyways too!? Thanks for any further advice/tips on this if able:)
Good question, to be honest I really don't know how well a forstner bit would work. A lot depends on the size of the hole. In that situation I'd look for an end mill (a center cutting end mill) instead. One that's extremely sharp, and has no special coatings for metal.
I have 4 1/8” 4x8 foot sheets to drill and attach to a wood frame this week and I’m stressing! Pretty small holes (for #8 screws) but I’m wondering if I can countersink the holes for the wood screws?
You can. You'll want a very sharp countersink with the right angle (I think with imperial screws it's 82 degrees). Personally I would try a single flute countersink after drilling the hole for the #8. Use the same soap/glycerin trick I used here with the countersink tool. With material that thin you will also want some way to control how deep the countersink goes, like a depth stop on a drill press. Good luck!
Nice video and nice clean holes : ) But let's say I don't have a drill press nor a grinder. And I want to drill a hole in something bigger: a 2" acrylic sphere (and quarter-inch hole). I do have a vise to hold the ball, and a good quality variable-speed drill. Any chance this would work, using the soap trick and an unmodified bit? Or is there a special (but non-step) bit I can buy?
Actually, I see I can buy bits just like this on Amazon. So... special bit, soap trick, but no drill press. Will it blend? Er... will it work? These acrylic balls are cheap so I'll probably end up testing it out one way or another.
I recently made some electrical panel faceplates and I was curious between the difference of polycarbonate and acrylic. I bought both to demo them. I just have a regular drill with cheap crappy bits, needless to say the PC was SIGNIFICANTLY more forgiving to work with than the acrylic, not as scratch resistant as acrylic though unfortunately. Nice tip though, probably easier and cheaper to do it this way than buy specialty bits for acrylic.
You're right about polycarbonate -it's tougher and actually you can buy it in scratch resistant grades. However it can't be processed with lasers or heat like acrylic, and thermoforming polycarbonate takes more care.
They say being busy is a good thing, although it may not always feel that way. I'm glad to see you've come back. You have almost 1,000 subs now. Time to give the people what they want, more vids!
really informative! is this at all worth trying for someone who doesn't have this elaborate of a set up? There's a project I'd like to try with drilling fairly smaller holes in acrylic ( maybe a smidge thinner then the one shown here ) to have a hole to feed a key chain link through. I think I could find a way to have the acrylic clamp and reinforced but I don't have the kind of drill featured here and would most likely be doing it hand held- is it worth trying or strongly not recommended?
This also works hand-held, I've done it a few times. Run your drill on the slow speed and hold it straight. Do consider picking up a small drill press. For the money, they are one of the best tools you can have.
Will the step drill bit enlarge existing holes? I need to be able to secure a rubbermaid trash can from blowing around but the holes are just a tad too small for the bungee cord.
I don't have a ton of experience with that situation, but my first approach would be to use glycerin or dish soap as laid out in the video. Sharpening the bit can't hurt. Also, someone else here had a helpful comment saying to clamp it to another piece of acrylic to prevent tearout. Seemed like a good idea to me.
@@ViceChief I would say it is a perfect opportunity for a step drill. You could also center up the hole using the same size drill bit then replace it with a larger bit.
Simply use a sharp step drill or a flat face spur bit. Also using air pressure keeps the acrylic cool and melt free. Slower is better than wide open and go gentle with your feed rate! Forstner bits are not good for acrylic or flat paddle bits, BTW. Actual acrylic bits are shaped like he shows but not ground that way lol. Break through needs to be super controlled as he shows.
Does the dish soap trick work with hole saws? I have to drill a single hole for lifting in a sheet of acrylic that will be used a aquarium lid. I can't foresee ever needing to cut acrylic again and am trying to find a way to work with the tools on hand.
I've never tried it myself. I'm sure it would help but honestly doubt that you'd get a really clean edge. If I were going to try it, I'd go very slow and clamp the acrylic securely. I know that a step drill will make a clean hole, but you may not have one.
Any suggestions on countersinking? I have seen recommendations to use zero flute and others argue 3 flute. Any input? Would probably only countersink much thicker plexiglass
Hey Jemdost, single flute cutters are incredible IF and ONLY IF you have very high RPMs and good rigidity (not handheld or drill press). I wouldn't recommend them if you are not cutting on a good quality CNC router. If you're on a drill press or using a hand drill, a 3-6 flute staggered countersink is probably the best thing. Low flutes = low heat input. Use the lubricants as described in the video. I'd bet there are good countersinks for plastics available with optimized geometry. If you have to do a lot of countersinking even a $50 tool can pay for itself quickly.
The big worry with speed is that you'll melt the acrylic. If you don't try to force it all the way through, and you keep it wet/lubricated, you will probably be fine. Always good to try a test piece first.
I need to put holes into imataion acryilc drinking glasses ...I did tgink of heating a needle up in the flame of a candle and piercing the hole....do you have any ideas . Thanks in advanced
You can also buy acrylic bits that are already sharpened to this pointy tip. I find that you don't need a set since you are generally drilling only a few different sized holes in plastic. This is the same as buying left hand drill bits to remove broken screws, you only need a few sizes.
Drill bits like this are available commercially. Different types of plastics require different methods. A low run out drill press helps immensely. I.e the Hamilton.
Just in case anyone needs to know drill bits are sold with tips on them so you don't have to worry about the whole sanding of the tip part (I believe they are the tips for drilling concrete)
masonry bits are like a flatter bar at the tip, they more hammer than drill, i think you are talking about a brad point bit, but if you have a dull drill bit laying about, just grind it like he did, even a heavier framing nail might work
"area around the hole will tear out or crack" "you still have most of the tip intact" "use dish soap as lubricant" "step drill" "make a small hole bigger" "have a great time"
Every plastic store I have ever been in sells special purpose bits for drilling plastic. They are basically just regular bits with the grind shown in this video, but a full set was very expensive to this poor old woodworker. I just bought them as I needed them because I was visiting the plastic shop 3 or 4 times a week anyway.
I'm intending to make a wind spinner out of 4 or 5mm thick acrylic or polycarbonate. It is foolish to think I'll be able to drill a 3mm wide hole into a 4 or 5 mm thick piece of acrylic?..
That will totally work. I would recommend polycarb for spinning applications. Take the drilling slow. My video is mostly about acrylic, but the advice here in the comments to back both sides with another piece of plastic should prevent any tearout.
@@ViceChief OK. BTW, I mean drill a hole so there is only 0.5/1mm material surrounding the hole (at it's thinnest part)... I've seen some videos of people saying you need to keep away from the edge, for acrylic and polycarbonate; like leave a gap to the edge, of 1.5 times the size of the hole. Thinking I might be better off using aluminium.
@@Lloyd.B. Oh, I misunderstood. You're correct. I definitely wouldn't try to support something on .5-1mm of acrylic around the hole. Maybe you can use some kind of insert or bushing + a larger area.
