so i’ve got an image file for a new shaping square, and i’ve got a 12"x24" piece of plexiglass to put it on…but i’m having some trouble connecting the dots. i figure the best way to do it would be to print it onto some kind of transparent adhesive and stick it on, but i can’t find any such material or a place that can do it. any ideas???
What about printing it onto a sheet of transparency paper (available at office supplies stores) then glueing that down with a glue stick? You should be able to use the jigsaw to cut out the plexiglass after that no? You may need better glue though, I’m not sure. Never done it, just an idea…
Santiago
Try following the basic pattern and scribe the lines directly into the plexiglass with a sharp tool. Write over them with a magic marker and wipe with an alcohol pad. It’ll leave black ink in the scored lines.
Sorry Soulstice, got confused. Listen to John.
can you forward the file to me.
Thanks
For what it’s worth, I have found plexiglass can chip if you use a saber saw on it, so what I do is run masking tape more or less where I will be cutting it, lay out my marks on that and then cut, tape and all, which tends to keep chipping to a minimum. Brand new blades, with fairly fine teeth that don’t have a lot of set to 'em, those seem to work pretty well.
If your saber saw has orbital cut ability, don’t use it. Straight up and down, real slow feed, that’s the ticket. Another good trick is to clamp your plexi to a piece of plywood, then use a laminate trimmer with bottom pilot bearing to cut ( slowly and carefully) the straight lines. If you had a plywood pattern for your gizmo, you could probably hot glue the plexi to it and do the whole shebang with the laminate trimmer. Hot gluing to the paper cover plexi comes with would prolly work just fine, as that stuff holds pretty good.
hope that’s of use
doc…
you can print your template onto normal printer paper(piecing it together with tape if it’s bigger than fits in your printer) and adhere it to the plexiglass, printed side up, using a repositionable spraymount available at any art supply store and possible home depot. It come in spray can and is relatively inexpensive.
alternatively you can print out a mirrored image of your template and do an acetone transfer onto the protective paper which comes on the surface of the plexiglass. All you do is place your mirrored print on the plexiglass, printed side down, and rub a cloth wet with acetone all over the paper surface. The acetone releases some of the ink from the print and transfers it to the plexiglass paper. A few warnings: tape your print to the plexiglass before transfering, as rubbing the acetone on can cause the paper to move, also don’t transfer onto the plexiglass itself, as the acetone will dissolve some of the plexiglass and the template paper will stick to the surface and otherwise just really mess up the face of the plex.
after either of these methods just cut out along the lines on the surface with a jigsaw(sharp blade, fine teeth, tape the line if at all possible)
chris