I was browsing the Lee Valley store and came across an eye-catching 3/4" square rectangular piece of acrylic. I was thoroughly mesmerized by the shimmering, translucent and brilliantly coloured piece of plastic. What I was looking at was a pen blank used by pen makers which they turn on a lathe to take on the cylindrical shape of a pen. I then thought to myself, I could use this great piece of acrylic to make other wonderful things. I could for instance use it in combination with a piece of exotic hardwood to make a pendant, or I could cut it into smaller squares and use these as inlays as small accents in a piece of furniture. The possibilities are endless!
The question now was...how do I cleanly and accurately cut acrylic using my woodworking machines? The answer was simple... use specially made saw blades in my machines to safely and cleanly cut acrylic to size. To cut acrylic using my table saw I reached for my Triple Chip Grind or (TCG) saw blade. This refers to the way some teeth of the blade is ground. I'm not an expert on the various saw blades by any means, but this is the recommended saw blade used to cut acrylic and it works! The cuts came out clean without any tear-out and the saw marks are virtually invisible.
Being a woodworker, doesn't only mean that you work with wood. Most woodworkers would welcome the chance to incorporate different materials into their woodworking projects and I'm no different. So I'm always looking for fun and interesting materials to work into wood.
So many possibilities!
Thanks for looking!
Roshaan
No comments:
Post a Comment