drilling acrylic

Hey guys. I was wondering if i wanted to drill a hole in an acrylic tank, its 40 gallons so that can give you an idea how thick it is, how hard it would be, what are the odds of it cracking, what drill bit would i need, and what factors contribute to it more likely cracking? for instance glass depends on if its tempered glass. is there tell tale signs like that ext?

thanks

 

get a small tooth circular bit.. Go slow to prevent heat building up and you can spray it with water for lubricant and to remove heat.. It can be done, Im sure that others that have actually drilled one will chime in shortly.. This is just from what I have read. Drilling glass is easy, im sure acrylic is even easier..

 

Saw tooth worked great for me. can pick up at home depot for pretty cheap. real easy and smooth cut. dont need to apply much pressure and like stated above^ you can spray the acrylic to keep the blade and plastic from melting together (i didnt and turned out fine tho). your acrylic should be fine to cut too thats the beauty of ACRYLIC!!!.

 

Just get a good hole saw to match the outer diameter of what ever you are drilling for, go slow and use water to cool the acrylic and saw blade. After you get about half way through the tank drill from the other side of the wall so you do not have any chips.

 

Yep slow and steady like everyone has stated. Let the hole saw do the work and change sides about halfway through. IME...Don't run a finger around the inside of the hole to check for smoothness! There may be some razor thin edges that leave a good cut.

 

You can drill from both sides, or hold a piece of 2x4 behind the hole and it wont chip either. Very easy to drill, just be patient and go SLOW.