How To Drill Hole In Acrylic Sheet

Mark or scribe the circle and drill a 1 4 inch pilot hole slightly inside the perimeter.

How to drill hole in acrylic sheet. When you start the drilling process ensure that the hole is away from the edge of the plexiglass. The tip must scrape the acrylic not gouge it. Step 5 spray water on the drill bit with the water bottle to keep the drill bit cool and provide a smooth finish to the drilled hole. Ensure you go slow stop often to cool the drill and always support the sheet.

This will avoid cracking which may damage the entire sheet. Here is a video on how to properly drill through acrylic plexiglass. To drill a hole in acrylite sheet greater than 1 25 4 mm a circle cutter may be used. It is possible to drill acrylic with regular metal drill bits.

The cutter bit must also be modified to accommodate the material properties of acrylic. For optimum cutting with circle cutters consider the following recommendations. While you are drilling through the plexiglass sheet the friction would produce intense heat and the bits would cause lots of plastic shavings around the hole especially if the sheet is thick. First you need to drill a small diameter pilot hole to get started.

However the likelihood of melting chipping cracking or breaking the acrylic is much higher. The pilot hole should be at least 1 2 the diameter of the final hole. Before you embark on drilling the main hole you should consider starting with a pilot hole. Depress the trigger of the drill motor to start drilling the hole into the acrylic sheet.

For example to drill a 1 2 inch hole you can make a pilot hole by beginning with a 1 4 bit drill and then moving to a 1 2 bit drill. Align the tip of the drill bit with the location that you need to drill the hole through the acrylic sheet. The gradually go up in drill bit sizes until you reach your desired diameter.