Drilling acrylic?

Greetings

I see that you advise against drilling acrylic, but does using a drill designed for drilling plastic help? There seem to be a number of companies that make these drills. One drill for instance is this one from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Craftics-Plas-Drill-Bit-3-16/dp/B0011Z2LDM/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b.

It would be much more convenient to do the some of the drilling after the cutting.

Thanks for any advice.

Hello,

I suspect that a bit like that should work. You can even do it with regular bits; it’s just not that easy, and you can crack or chip the acrylic if you don’t do it right, so it’s much better if you can get the holes in the drawings for us to cut (unless you need a really accurate hole).

- Jan

I’ve had good luck drilling thick plexiglas using a Forstner bit chucked in a drill press. Feeding gently and with low RPM (so the plastic shaves not melts) seems to work. I don’t think I’d try it with a thin sheet though (and always use safety glasses regardless!).