Cutting plexi-glass

Grim/Don

Grim/Don

Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
1,221
I had to replace one of the garage windows today. Home Depot and Lowes,, neither one sold glass in the correct size (or cut glass anymore). I tried calling a couple of glass places, but they were all closed for the weekend. Finally found a piece of plexi-glass big enough, then remembered a friend had told me the best way to cut it...

He had his own business for a number of years making custom shower enclosures, and fancy bathroom mirrors. I was complaining to him once about using a utility knife to cut plexi-glass and he said to take my blade out of my circular saw and turn it around backwards!

So I marked up the plexi-glass and prepared the saw... Worked like a charm! Minimal chipping (I left the plastic sheeting on while cutting) I didn't make the 1st cut completely through, and a bit of the corner chipped, but that was covered up by the molding.

As soon as I got the window in, I made sure to change my blade back around. Just thought I'd share a tip that worked very well for me. (Much better that using a knife and trying to snap)
 
If you do use a knife to score, what you want to do is make sure the leading edge of the blade is near perpendicular to the plexi so that you gouge a line in the sheet rather than cut. That should help to reduce unwanted damage and make the job easier.
 
For plastics slow speed and slow feed works better .It will prevent melting of the plastic which causes cracking.
 
I use a Bosch jig saw with a fine blade. The saw is variable speed, just go slow. Guess there is more than one way as in most things
 
I never cut a large piece but for smaller ones I found a regular hacksaw for metal cut it well. I too have heard of turning your blade around for large pieces tho...just never tried it. I imagine it would work just as well for lexan...just go slow to prevent melting.
 
Hey! Thanks for that tip. I worked at HD for many years, and was one of those guys who worked in another dept. but was willing to cut glass or lexan on the glass cutter. It was a sharp tooth like blade that required multiple passes until you could pop it out. I never heard about the reverse saw blade trick. Awesome.
 
I have all ways just scored it and broke it like you do glass.
 
I've cut plexi (amongst everything else imaginable since I'm a furniture maker) with a tablesaw and my compound mitre-slider for years. Finer toothe blades clog easier and larger tooth blades chip. Finding these are about the best I've found.
I've found scoring and snapping is cheaper in the long run, but with less refined edges.
 
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