i havent made it yet!

i bought my acrylic to make a water holding box for both ro/di and ro/di+salt.

i've done some research on how to cut and bond the acrylic, and used the garf site for recommendations on the thickness and panel sizes for the tank.

anyone have good advice/experience/links for best ways to cut acrylic (1/4" thick) and for bonding it all together??

thanks!!

 

theres a tool you can buy, its cheap. basically like cutting glass. it scores the acrylic and then snaps clean. very nice cut. and a good silicone should keep everything strong and water tight.

 

a glass scorer may work but i would cut acrylic with a saw as it wont snap like glass on thick panes.
how ever silicone doesnt adhere to acrylic as well as to glass, i wouldnt trust it to hold water on any but nano tanks

the only tip i could give you is make sure the saw is spining at full speed before atempting to cut. so give it a few seconds to gain speed

 

i apologize on the silicone suggestion.

 

the only reason i know about the silicon, is i made a divider in one of my tanks, silicon w/ acrylic will hold a few pounds but nothing coming close to the weight of water.

 

i found a nice 7 1/4 inch metal blade for my hand held rip saw. i'm going to try it on the 1/4 inch acrylic.

i did the "score with a glass knife" thing on the sheet of thinner (1/8th) acrylic i got to make the lid for the box. it worked well, but at the end of the 32 inch break line it got off the line, so i had to use a rubber mallet to chip off the edges - worked very well!!

 

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I made a overflow box for a friend of mine, of course I didn't take any pics but it doesn't leak. I used acetone to make the joints. Making joints with this material is done by means of chemical welding, basically your going to melt the pieces together. After I made the overflow I found a complete line of this stuff at a hobby shop that specialized in R/C cars and such.

 

To cut a clean 1/4 thick acrylic, you want to get a good table saw blade. Get as many teeth as you can, at least 60 on a 7-1/4" blade, or 80 on a 10" blade. The more the better. You want as clean of an edge as you can get. You can also gently scrape the edge with a razor blade to clean off any burrs. You will then want to get Weld-On #4 to glue the pieces together. There are many ways to do it. There is the "pin method" or just letting capillary action draw in the glue. I personally use the latter method and have had good results. The most important thing is to get a clean straight edge that will bond securely to the other surface.
Using a score won't work well for thick acrylic, I wouldn't suggest it. they tend not to break how you want, like you experienced. Don't use a hand saw or circular saw unless you use an edge guide. Stick with a table saw to get a perfectly straight edge. If you don't have a straight edge, use a table router or a jointer to get a clean edge.

 

I wouldn't avoid using a handheld circular saw, as you will tend to move the saw slightly which will cause the acrylic to break. As Tigermike said, you want to use a plywood blade on a table saw, that's what I used to cut 1/4" acrylic and it worked very well, just don't push it too fast or the friction will build up and melt it.

 

would a ceramic tile blade work well? just thinkin it might cut alot cleaner and no chance of nicks. can put those on a table saw or skilsaw.