Need to drill acrilyc sump tank.
- Thread starter Ralphyhp
- Start date
Should work.
Clamp a piece of wood behind your work (if you're really obsessive, clamp a piece both in front and behind your work) before you drill, to prevent chipout as you break through the acrylic. Something thin, 1/4" scrap would do the trick.
Best of luck!
Clamp a piece of wood behind your work (if you're really obsessive, clamp a piece both in front and behind your work) before you drill, to prevent chipout as you break through the acrylic. Something thin, 1/4" scrap would do the trick.
Best of luck!
Standard Bi-Metal hole saws work just fine on acrylic. I usually recommend folks "clear" chips out often. Do this by drilling and pulling the drill out while still running then start drilling again. When clearing chips, it is also a good idea to lubricate the drill by squirting lubricant into the slot made by the hole saw, a 50/50 combination of Palmolive + water works very well and is water soluble for easy clean-up.Matt_Wandell":2b5qy8mw said:
Lubricating liberally will lower the heat build-up which will produce less "slag" and also lessen residual stress so the tendency to craze will be lower.
As previously mentioned, use of a backer piece is also recommended, you can easily do this by double faced taping something (wood, acrylic) on the back side of your hole location. This will help eliminate "chip out" on the back side of the cut as well as making the piece more rigid so it doesn't vibrate as much. I recommend double faced tape simply because it can be tough to clamp things on the back sometimes. If you can clamp it back there, go for it.
HTH,
James
James,
From your name I'm guessing you're the guy to talk to about this kind of stuff! What do you do for a living?
The folks at my local TAP plastics suggested I use a Forstner bit when I drill acrylic. I did and it worked fine. I drilled about 10 different 1.75" holes. However, most folks here suggested I use a hole saw, which seems to work fine too. Any idea why they suggested these? They actually suggested I buy them from a different store (harbor freight tools), so it wasn't like they were just trying to sell me something expensive.
From your name I'm guessing you're the guy to talk to about this kind of stuff! What do you do for a living?
The folks at my local TAP plastics suggested I use a Forstner bit when I drill acrylic. I did and it worked fine. I drilled about 10 different 1.75" holes. However, most folks here suggested I use a hole saw, which seems to work fine too. Any idea why they suggested these? They actually suggested I buy them from a different store (harbor freight tools), so it wasn't like they were just trying to sell me something expensive.
I build aquarium and museum exhibitsMatt_Wandell":c08f1wtd said:
Most folks won't have 1.75" Forstner bits laying around nor does Home Depot cary them AFAIK. But hole saws are common and available at most hardware stores, so in this sense they are simpler to find - thus simpler to get the job done.
IIRC, Tap doesn't carry anything larger than 1.5" Forstners anyway, so they'd be hard pressed to sell them
Personally, I don't like either, but that's just me
For bulkhead sizes through 6", I have templates that I use routers with to make holes - to me they are faster and produce cleaner holes. Plus many bulkheads require holes sizes that hole saws are simply not available in, this is where routers and templates are very handy.James
Hi, i already drill the sump, i used a hold saw from Home depot. Im waitting for the hold saw that i order from Harbor freights tools . My brother help me to do the job cus he works for Otis Elevators as a technician and he knows how to handle this tools. No leaks everything fine. Thanks for the help. Here some pics.
Attachments
[quote/]For bulkhead sizes through 6", I have templates that I use routers with to make holes - to me they are faster and produce cleaner holes. Plus many bulkheads require holes sizes that hole saws are simply not available in, this is where routers and templates are very handy.
James[/quote]
james -
please describe your templates and how you make them - i might try this myself.
tia
-reid
James[/quote]
james -
please describe your templates and how you make them - i might try this myself.
tia
-reid
Reid,valid":392jlwyx said:
There are numerous ways, if you have a milling machine and a rotary table - that's one and prolly the best
The simplest is to take various peices of acrylic tube and glue them to flat pieces of acrylic and route out the center. Eg., If you take a small 1/2" - 1" length of 2" OD tube (1/8" wall) and glue it to a flat piece of acrylic (thickness is irrelevant) and route out the center - you now have a 1.75" hole - just the size for a 1" bulkhead. If you take this hole and use various rabbett bits and bearings - you can make virtually any size hole you want. Simple & easy, find small chunks of tube at your local plastic shop's scrap bin
HTH,
James
Lemme guess, 1 1/2" bulkheads?valid":hy1lo61d said:
If you can find a piece of 3 1/2" tube with 1/8" wall.
If this is the case, you may wish to actually measure the tailstock of the bulkead, it is not at all uncommon for them to measure closer to 3 5/16 - 3 3/8", in which case you'll have to use a different sized hole.
HTH,
James
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