mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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Does anyone know of any companies or individuals who can cut my perspex well?
I need it so its a tight fit into the hole where my sunroof was, we were going to weld a new roof on, but i have made some brackets & just need a tight fitting bit of perspex to fit the hole now.
I was thinking mebbies a company with a precision cutter?
I had a go myself, and it was crap, i thought i was cutting a straight line, looks like a child has done it!
Or if anyone is confident with their cutting skills and wants some beer tokens i will post the material off to them?
Need to to be as tight a fit as possible, even tried making a cardboard template, but thats crap aswell, it just bends to shape, i want something a bit more ridgid?
Ideas please?
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BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
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I used a jig-saw and it worked fine.
Cut it close to the line, then sand any excess off.
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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i tried, but i cant get a straight line.
Did you fit yours into the hole, or over the top?
What style saw blade did you use, and what thickness perspex did you use?
Did you use an electric sander, or just heavy grit paper?
Ta.
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BluKoo
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Registered: 8th Apr 02
Location: Stonehaven (Scotland)
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The perspex I cut wasn't for a sunroof. They were some large panels for the side of a bird cage.
I've got no idea what blade i used, but the perspex was about 3-4mm thick.
I mangaged to get a relatively straight line first time. I just took it slowly.
I used a heavy grit sand paper and a large sanding block.
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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ah cool, cheers mate, would prefer if someone else did it, as my hands aint too steady, but if not i'll spend another 30 quid on some perspex & have another crack 
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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I could do it, depending on the dimensions, on the laser cutter I operate. Perspex probably isn't the nest material for it though, but it's up to you...
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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perspex, polycarbonate, anything like that matey?
Its the std sunroof dimensions, which i dont have with me, something like 400 x 800mm i think.
Does the laser cutter do curved corners ok?
[Edited on 25-06-2008 by mantamark]
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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It can do any 2D shape you want and is very accurate.
The biggest size it can do is apparently 500x770, but I think the bed is big enough to do an 800 wide sheet so it ought to be able to do it, though I'll have to check tomorrow.
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Robin
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Registered: 7th Jan 04
Location: Northants Drives: Clio 182 Cup
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Find a metalwork shop with one of these
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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A brake press on plastic?
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nova_gteuk
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Registered: 15th May 02
Location: South Wales Drives: The Bandwagon
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Looks more like a sheet metal shear to me.
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rustyarchs
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Registered: 29th Aug 04
Location: scotland
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that a guillotine?
place on ebay sells perspex cut to any size you want and there prices are very fair in fact id reckon even with postage to you it would work out a bit cheaper than £30, i looked into getting a few things made up to go with the metalwork i do!! westward or something was the ebay name
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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Rusty, got a link?
They will be able to do a rectangle, will have to get the corners done somewhere else though :?
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rustyarchs
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Registered: 29th Aug 04
Location: scotland
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pain in the arse
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/WestwardPlastics1
there was a couple of others but at the time this lot were the cheapest for what i wanted so maybe worth you trying some of the others to see what they quote,and im ure they will do what you want to the specs you give them buddy
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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lol, will be a nightmare to send out angles and stuff for the curve, wouldnt know where to start?
suppose if i measured the square on the roof, then worked out the angle with a protractor thing(i knew i would need to use one after school!!!!) they might be able to sort it out?
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nova_gteuk
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Registered: 15th May 02
Location: South Wales Drives: The Bandwagon
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http://www.toolsplus1.com/shears.htm
Im sure its a sheet metal shear,my uncle has one in his workshop identical.
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rustyarchs
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Registered: 29th Aug 04
Location: scotland
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mark prob safer you just getting sent the precut blank and doing the rest yourself lol
nova_gteuk yeah same thing mate just usually called guillotines over here
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myke
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Registered: 7th Feb 01
Location: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
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quote:
Originally posted by mantamark
lol, will be a nightmare to send out angles and stuff for the curve, wouldnt know where to start?
suppose if i measured the square on the roof, then worked out the angle with a protractor thing(i knew i would need to use one after school!!!!) they might be able to sort it out?
i can't picture the sunroof aperture, but i assume you'd just need to give them the dimensions of the rectangle and tell them what radius you want on the corners.
I can't imagine angles would come into it at all.
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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How do you work out the radius then?
Cheers for info.
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myke
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Registered: 7th Feb 01
Location: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
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Imagine there's a circular disc in each corner of the sunroof to create the correct curve.
This circle has a radius (half of the diameter). this applies to the curve just as it applies to the circle.
The same is valid for any curve, not just corners.
no radius would be a 90degree corner with sharp point.
small radius (circa 5mm) would be fairly unnoticeable on something like you mention.
a large radius is fairly obvious and would give 'rounded' corners.
measure accurately the distance between where the curve starts on one edge to where the perpendicular edge would have projected to.
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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Once i have this measurement, is that all i need?
I have a set square thing, will go down the paintshop tomorrow & measure it.
cheers.
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myke
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Registered: 7th Feb 01
Location: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
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presuming it's a rectangle with radius'd corners, yeah.
give them the outside dimensions of the rectangle and size of the radius.
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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Cool beans, easy as that eh?
Needs to be 6mm, spotted some, just waiting for reply to see if they can do corners.
It looks pretty much the same as the diagram above, just a bit bigger.
thats the one.
should be easy enough i think?
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mantamark
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Northumberland
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got the set square out & did some measuring.
curve starts at 65, stops at 0, so the radius is 65?
Is that all they need to know?
Cheers.
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