Lee White

Milling Acrylic Plastic

For a recent project in the Biorobotics Lab I performed some end mill machining on acrylic plastic (aka plexiglass aka polymethylmethacrylate).  I found good finish characteristics and low chatter with the following mill parameters:

Platform: Vertical End Mill

Material: PMMA Sheet

Material thickness: 0.25 inch

End Mill Diameter: 0.5 inch

End Mill Speed: 1000 RPM

Feed Rate: 5 inches per minute

Cut style: “Climb Cut”  (as opposed to a “dimensional”)