Colex polished edge acrylic?

[MGB_LE]

I'm not getting repsonses from Colex themselves yet.
They offer two router bits, T00546 and T00547, which are described as leaving a polished finish on acrylic. We use lots of .25" and .375" acrylic and don't want to flame polish of chemically polish.

Are there other bits to recommend? I'd presume the same bit is used for cutting out and polishing, or are these seperate operations with seperate router bits?

 

[MGB_LE]

This is the router edge we're currently getting with our Colex Sharpcut and acrylic router bit, but it's not what we'd consider smooth or polished.

 

[greysquirrel]

There should be a profile that downloads to leave a polished edge. It really just does a second pass to clean it up. Keep in mind, if you use your router bit for anything other than acrylic it will not give your the best edge. The router should be warmed up first as well. And if you specifically cut pvc then the edge will always be matte when you cut the acrylic. You may need to adjust speed through material and direction as well. Blades do cut differently each way. Colex is usually up to 24 hours to return a call.

 

[ikarasu]

In our experience, you'll never get as polished of an edge with a router no matter the bit you use as you would flame polishing or laser cutting the letters.

You may get "Acceptable", but nothing as good as flame polished looks - We've tried the super expensive diamond polishing bits...and while it leaves a much nicer edge, its not usually display worthy like acrylic needs to be.

 

[JBurton]

Do the drops have a better edge? In that case, reverse the bit direction. A final .005 pass in one step will also eliminate the layer lines.

 

[johnnysigns]

There is tooling for doing a finish pass that's supposed to be a like a diamond edge polished edge. I thought it was PCD tooling, but that seems to be for composites and not acrylic.

 

[Aaron Hunter]

The 546 & 547 are engraving bits and shouldn't be used for this application. What bit did you use for the cuts you've shown? You're getting a lot of chatter on your edges from vibration in the spindle but in between the chatter does have a nice polish to it. This are signs of good spindle speed but feed rate is higher than what your spindle can tolerate without using a clean up cut.

 

[Print1]

T00502 is the. 6mm bit for polished acrylic, run it with .015 as your final pass depth. On your specific machine you don’t have a true polishing pass. It’s just a cleanup pass. See settings below or shoot me a text and I’ll remote in and walk you though it

 

[MarkSnelling]

In our experience, you'll never get as polished of an edge with a router no matter the bit you use as you would flame polishing or laser cutting the letters.

You may get "Acceptable", but nothing as good as flame polished looks - We've tried the super expensive diamond polishing bits...and while it leaves a much nicer edge, its not usually display worthy like acrylic needs to be.

Colex can do it.....it looks incredible. I've got these samples I show customers all the time....edges look flawless.

 

[MGB_LE]

Colex can do it.....it looks incredible. I've got these samples I show customers all the time....edges look flawless.

Can you share images of your output? Colex support recently contacted us with instructions, but it's good to have comparison samples.

 

[rossmosh]

When it comes to acrylic there are a few ways to go about this.

1. Accept a machine finish. You could improve your finish by doing a finishing pass at full depth, but it still won't be perfect.

2. Switch to a laser cutter.

3. "Manually polish". I've never thought much of flame polishing, but everyone is different. Sand, wet sand, and buff is a way more consistent method.

4. Buy really expensive router bits that can do a finishing pass that will give you a really high end finish. Even then, this is not a 100% guarantee. The finish will ultimately be down to your machine and your hold down. If you have any vibrations, it will ultimately show.

Based on the pictures shown above, by far the best way would be to simply manually polish the edges. Personally, I kind of like the semi-polished, matte finish edge that comes with a 320grit paper.

 

[MarkSnelling]

Can you share images of your output? Colex support recently contacted us with instructions, but it's good to have comparison samples.

I'm traveling today but will try to send you a picture tomorrow when I get back to my office. Looks like a factory cut.

 

[JBurton]

Looks like a factory cut.

So rotational saw marks? (factory cut acrylic in my experience isn't great, but I'm dealing with 3/4" thick)

Anybody know how these were polished. I'm reworking a sign and they initially looked to be lasered, but the acrylic has a lip, so I'm thinking buffed.
Frankly, I agree with rossmosh, the 'frosted' like edge you get from a decent CNC makes for an even lighting appearance for push through acrylic. These letters had lots of highlights that was just from the sun hitting the edge, which while neat, it's uneven.

 

[johnnysigns]

So rotational saw marks? (factory cut acrylic in my experience isn't great, but I'm dealing with 3/4" thick)

Anybody know how these were polished. I'm reworking a sign and they initially looked to be lasered, but the acrylic has a lip, so I'm thinking buffed.
Frankly, I agree with rossmosh, the 'frosted' like edge you get from a decent CNC makes for an even lighting appearance for push through acrylic. These letters had lots of highlights that was just from the sun hitting the edge, which while neat, it's uneven.

It honestly looks laser cut but the stepped cut is something I've never seen off a laser. The raised lip is pretty normal with laser cutting though. Guessing that was just flame polished and CNC cut.

 

[rossmosh]

It's probably laser cut, two different pieces, and then glued together. Pretty common way of doing push through acrylic letters.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

This is the router edge we're currently getting with our Colex Sharpcut and acrylic router bit, but it's not what we'd consider smooth or polished.
View attachment 168392
View attachment 168391

So you step cut here. We do our step cutting down to a final skin, then run the same bit at a higher RPM and slower traverse speed to increase the heat to melt the acrylic edge. I know the Colex doesn't have a quick collet, but ultimately, this would be better with a cutting bit than an abrasive polishing bit in the final pass.

 

[JBurton]

two different pieces, and then glued together.

Doubtful, you can see the router bit rotation marks on the face of the lip.

then run the same bit at a higher RPM and slower traverse speed to increase the heat to melt the acrylic edge.

I've always done the opposite, well rather ramping the traverse and leaving the RPM. I'll give this a shot. Do you make sure to clear the chips from the pocket first? I've welded chips back to an edge while cutting deep pockets... not fun to deal with.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Doubtful, you can see the router bit rotation marks on the face of the lip.

I've always done the opposite, well rather ramping the traverse and leaving the RPM. I'll give this a shot. Do you make sure to clear the chips from the pocket first? I've welded chips back to an edge while cutting deep pockets... not fun to deal with.

You can clear the chips if your cutting pass doesn't do so but we use upcut bits and that pulls most of the chips for us.

 

[Sam Ibra]

I use a synthetic dimond polishing bit from Cutguru. it works great on Colex but you cant polish small letters because the bit diameter is 0.197"