# How to cut lexan shapes



## Chris G (May 17, 2006)

Can you cut a radius in Lexan with a jigsaw?


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## dkillianjr (Aug 28, 2006)

I wouldn't see why not, just so it didn't bind up on ya and crack the material. If you have rotozip that may work better. I had to cut a few circles in some plexiglass. I screwed the base of my rotozip to the end of a peice of 1"x2" and put a screw at the other end inthe middle of the circle (I needed a hole there anyway). Boom homemade circle cutter, it worked pretty good. 



Dave


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## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

Lexan is not nearly the same a Plexi, it's much easier. It won't crack or cause other problems. It will melt if your saw speed is too fast or TPI too fine.

How thick is it? Will the edge be visible?


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## Chris G (May 17, 2006)

Thanks guys. It's for some windows on a store. Rocks have been thrown through them over the last few months. It's in a weird area of town what can I say. 

Thickness? I dunno. I have no experience with this stuff. Although I have found a good supplier.

The windows are arched on the top, hence my original query about cutting radius. It is an old home converted to a store. It would be nice to make cuts on site because it will be tough to make an accurate template.


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## KillerToiletSpider (May 27, 2007)

We use 3/16" Lexan for stock car windshields, I cut it with an old PC router.


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## Michaeljp86 (Apr 10, 2007)

Ive used a rotozip and it works great. Ive used jigsaws, bandsaw and even circular saw.


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## TempestV (Feb 3, 2007)

I've used a table saw, and it worked great. A fine toothed blade might not be a bad idea though. I've also used a skill saw and jigsaw for the double layer channeled stuff for greenhouses.
hole saws cut a pretty clean hole as well, if you have a need for that. Just be sure to pull the circle out of the hole saw before you have 15 layers of melted Lexan stacked up in there. Anyone want to ask how I found that out? I wasn't the one that made the mistake, but I was the one that tried to use the hole saw second :furious::furious:. Acrylic and Plexiglass is horrible to work with, but Lexan is pretty forgiving.

when I was building competition robots in high school, we would use lexan for body panels. A bunch of 2" holes in the sheets would let heat escape and drop weight, still leave something to stop stuff from sticking in and damaging our electronics.


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