CNC Plastic Cutting with Amana Tool Spektra Router Bit | ToolsToday

He cuts the letters CNC into 1/4" thick red acrylic on his Carbide 3D CNC machine.

Spektra™ bits feature a nACo® nanocomposite coating with an extreme nanohardness and heat resistance. With a brilliant, distinctively-tinted coloring, nACo provides additional improvements in critical aspects of router tooling which results in extreme tool longevity and cuts of the highest quality.

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Feed, Speed, Chip Load & Step Down CNC Running Parameters

1/8" Dia. x 1/4” Shank Solid Carbide Spektra™ Coated Down-Cut Router Bit No. 51416-K
Feed Rate (IPM): 70
Speed (RPM): 18,000
Chip Load (Per Tooth): 0.004"
Ramp Down IPM: 35






See more by Tyson Moore

[digital-niche]

For anybody cutting acrylic keep in mind that cutting cast acrylic vs extruded acrylic is very different. In my experience cutting cast acrylic is much easier that extruded. I would be willing to bet that this is cast acrylic.

If you are cutting cast acrylic I would recommend using a belin 33 series bit. I use either a 1/4 belin 33635 or 3/16 belin 33476 and get excellent results. For the 33635 I'd run your machine at 23, 000rpm conventional 69 ipm with a 69 ipm ramp. If your spindle doesn't go this fast I would just knock your feed and ramp down a little. So if you're running 15, 000 rpm maybe try 58 ipm and see what you get.

[bobbyroad]

Awesome! Nice cuts, thank you for sharing feeds and speeds! AND step down, very helpful for us beginners.

[eyecandy-gaming]

in your description you say down cut router bit. The part listing is for an O bit though.

[jimtiffin]

Love this project! So impressive because you can see how it would inspire other projects. Thank you for sharing. And could I ask you to share one more thing? I'm interested in your hold down method for this project. I can see you used blue painters tape, but how did you get it to hold your cutout letters once you completed the profile cut? What held it to the table? Did you thru-cut to exactly the thickness of the acrylic (1/4"), or did you go a little more into the spoilboard to make sure you fully cut the acrylic? So many questions, I know :-) But thanks in advance for any help you could give this novice CNC-er!

[felixfromnebraska]

Hey I love the CNC work! Could you tell me where you purchased your pieces of plastic or acrylic I’m looking for some black or pink where I can cut letters completely out of it and have a backlit panel on the back. Everything that I have found is tremendously expensive and I’m just wondering if there’s something of an alternative. Thanks for sharing, Felix

[josephgribbins]

I’m wondering if you could help. I’m cutting 1/4 inch acrylic with the same bit used in the video and I’m having trouble with the acrylic shavings staying in the cut path and melting in the next pass and damaging my piece.

I’m running around 18, 000 rpm
70 ipm
30 ipm ramp down
And it’s making 4 passes

[darkroomstudios]

I have a question about cutting Styrene with my cnc machine im using lazy cam with dxf converting to gcode and for some reason I can ever get the cnc to cut curves i have jagged edges. Is there some thing i am missing it should be able to cut clean curved lines on 39/64 Styrene Plastic. Any thoughts.