Cut Acrylic with a 3D Printer

Convert your 3D Printer into a light duty CNC mill! Here I show cutting acrylic with a Dremel style rotary tool attached to my HyperCube 3D Printer.
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A very special thank you to Patrons:
💙 Zak Gurney Chalmers
💙 Darryl McCarthy
💚 / tech2c 💚
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Download the HyperCube 3D Printer/CNC from Thingiverse:
►www.thingivers...
Download the HyperCube post processor file for Fusion360 and Flex Shaft mount:
►www.thingivers...
Dremel style Rotary Tool:
►110v www.banggood.c...
►220v www.banggood.c...
Flexible Shaft for Rotary Tool:
►www.banggood.c...
1.5mm End Mill 10 pack:
►www.banggood.c...
Buy cheap 3D Printer kits and parts from Banggood:
►goo.gl/bFyz5H
Amazon 3D Printers and Parts:
►amzn.to/2qdTebt
Music: Future Funk by Joakim Karud

[@migranthawker2952]

As you're not removing detritus as milling is taking place, you have acrylic particles falling into the cut areas as you cut, which stick to the cutting head and also act as a grinding medium, which will cause additional friction resulting in less clean edges and some overheating. I suggest positioning a vacuum cleaner head close to the area of milling to clean up those particles

[@crimpers5543]

looks like it cut just fine.

[@EdAgers110]

Damn you, man!! Have you no CONSCIENCE? Now you have forced me to spend the next couple of weekends trying to do this on my OWN printer!! Great video! well done and well explained.

[@genericaccount9222]

I love all the cool ‘mods’ your doing with your printer. No other channels do this!

[@Tech2C]

Cheers mate!

[@matthewgartner2998]

Thank you...Information on Fusion 360 gcode setup and it's relation to a 3D printer was like gold!

[@ronalddhs3726]

Hi, loving how you make the overall process of making something with our current tools: Quicker and more efficient. Thanks (I will definitely give this a go for front panels and other flat parts).

[@Tech2C]

Cheers mate!

[@prashkd7684]

I've had that flex extion tool sitting in my tool box for years and I had no idea i can use it for milling acrlic :).. Glad i saw your video.. Now i can hack my 3018 with wobbly spindle and replace it with powerful dremel tool. More drilling power and less gantry weight.

[@rossclutterbuck1060]

Very tempted to try this on my Ender 3 Pro

[@RCMlll]

This is awesome!! I've been looking tirelessly for a way to cut nice shapes of acrylic at home :) Thanks mate!

[@justme4669]

Wow, great ideas. I have an older 3d printer and a dremel in the workshop so I know what I will be doing tomorrow. Great info and well explained.

[@jmtx.]

Thanks for sharing an extremely useful tutorial on practical milling with Fusion and your 3D printer. Awesome work!

[@Tech2C]

Thx

[@TheNitroG1]

I recommend attaching a vacuum hose to the tool as well so it sucks up the bits of acrylic and fumes while it goes, also the air moving will help keep the material cool so you can keep printing at faster speeds. obviously tweaking will be needed.

[@akiren7730]

nice use of Acrylic cutting your thing in the middel nice economy!!!!

[@valker6870]

Looks great, I only have two suggestions. Maybe 3-D printing out some type of support on the four corners of your build plate to hold the acrylic plate Instead of resting it on ABS more like legs of a table so it could be removed easier and simply fall onto you build State when it is done instead of getting in the way of the milling bit. Also hooking your vacuum up to the side of the build plate or even a stand next to your printer should mitigate clean up after your part is complete.

[@drhender6943]

For a copter/drone frame, I'd suggest using polycarbonate instead of acrylic. It's not as rigid, but the result is a tougher frame-- less likely to shatter. It's also a bit easier to machine.

[@Lundev_]

Very nice result, as you said you are melting the acrylic, you can also notice it with the acrylic sticking to the end mill. It means the end mill is spinning too fast as it shoul not happens. Try lowering the spindle speed (3 000 rpm should be better). Finding the right feeds and speeds for plastic can be tricky. Keep up the good work.

[@darkwinter6028]

Lundev I Star Citzen - Coolant can also help with this (I would probably go for a “fog-buster” style minimum quantity lubricant system). But even just spraying a little water on the workpiece can help... 🤔

[@Lundev_]

Dark Winter Yeah that may help to but I would not spray water around open electronic, an enclosure would be needed

[@darkwinter6028]

Lundev I Star Citzen - yes, to be sure... but... I have to question why somebody would be running a machine with the electronics open in the first place... especially in a country with 240v mains! 😬 And then there is the concern of chips coming from the cutter, and when 3D printing, off gassing from the hot end (which is why I built an enclosure for my i3 that exhausts out the window with a bathroom fan from the local home improvement big-box store, and some dryer ducting. The hypercube-like machine that I’m building now will have a similar setup; with glass panels slid into the slots on the 2020 extrusion frame).

[@thebeststooge]

Single flute or dual flute is way better as well. Plastic and aluminum with more than 1 or 2 flutes is ugh, especially aluminum that is gummy.

[@Tech2C]

I've ordered 2 flute end mills with 1.5mm diameter. When they arrive I'll try acrylic again... and aluminium ;)

[@Backenfutter85]

Very nice Project. You could try an 1 or 2-flute End-mill and use a slight coolant, so you should get a super smooth finish on the sides. But be careful with alcohols like IPA as it releases stress in the acrylic material and can cause cracks.

[@GregK2754]

one thing I've found when cutting acrylic is to use slower speeds so you do not melt it. If like me you can not slow the router down to less then 16K RPMs (I use a DeWalt 611) then try using an end mill with less flutes, double or even single flute end mills do the job.

[@1973shaner]

Another Great Video - Thanks for sharing - After watching this I have decided to make a machine set up just for cutting. Excellent Stuff

[@Tech2C]

Well done!

[@delgueda]

This is great, thanks for yet another excellent video. I'm so glad I chose to build a hypercube, it's such a uniquely versatile machine thanks to your efforts to keep finding new uses for it. Cheers mate!

[@johncabrer2328]

A little vacuum table with built-in sacrificial layer would be a great first project to make with this.

[@tyakoss]

Great video. Literally a week ago I got a small CNC router. Interesting to see how these compare.

[@coldycoldbg]

The end mill you are using is meant for fibery stuff, like pcb's, carbon fiber, etc. You should get a 1-flute Upcut endmill (also meant for aluminum) and try with that. Make sure to remove the chips (you can 3d print a fan to attach to the tool/spindle or you can vacuum from time to time) and in order to get a nicer finish, you can spray ocasionally some water on the milling surface/channel, just not on the last pass (in depth) to avoid the MDF spoil board bowing/puffing from the water.

[@Tech2C]

Yes I get that now. The bits are burr. I have 2 flute carbide 1.5mm diameter end mills on the way. I'll try again when they arrive. I'll probbaly hold the vacuum as it cuts next time. At least initally until I mount something more permanent. Cheers!

[@mbainrot]

I wonder if there is a way of adding a little tub so you can use coolant?

[@coldycoldbg]

Max Bainrot yup, that is actually the easy part, the hard part is the part/stock holding inside the tub... Basically it should have t-slots on the bottom or something...

[@1Hippo]

Really interesting, i will definitly try that out! But be careful with milling into MDF, it creates very fine wood dust and the glue usually contains formaldehyde, both is known to cause cancer. So it would be good to use a dust mask. In addition it might be possible to make a 3D printed nozzle and hook up a vacuum cleaner? That would also reduce the stuff flying around in the room.

[@Tech2C]

Ok, thanks for the heads up! I think a vacuum adapter would be good as long as the gantry could support it.

[@rayjohnson7417]

another stellar video from the smartest guy on youtube

[@Tech2C]

Thanks mate!

[@ekatolia]

Me parece estupenda adaptación de la impresora 3D. Enhorabuena

[@robman80808]

Amazingly thorough video. Thanks.

[@No1sonuk]

I wonder if part of the smell issue is the dust that's not cleared away from the cut. Maybe some kind of vacuum attachment would help there - it would also reduce the mess and clean-up.

[@samuelgonzalez7783]

I would suggest that you get a car vacuum, there are 12v dc once around ebay and amazon I bet, that has long nose attachment. That way you can extend the hose with a similar flex hose with the same or close diameter, to extend it to the cutting area. That's the plan for me anyways for my attempt.

[@thebeststooge]

Now that is cool and well done.

[@Tech2C]

Thx

[@Backwoods-Bob]

Trick I have used for holding stock down for cnc milling. Painters tape and super glue. Put a layer of painters tape on your bed and one one what you want to hold down. Put super glue on the bottom layer of tape and press together, careful not to glue the part to the bed. When done the tape can be peeled off easily for both bed and part with no residue left behind.

[@thedream7504]

You are ingenious, Great !

[@saywhat9158]

Nice job. Seems like some dense foam board might be cheaper and extend the life of your bit as an underlayment. Those rounded edges should serve as a more durable benefit with little to no loss in aesthetics.

[@Tech2C]

Yes foam board should work fine. Good idea.

[@krazed0451]

"It looks dimensionally accurate"... Maybe a pair of vernier calipers is in order!

[@gustavferdman214]

While working with CNC, mostly eyemeasuring is good enough. If something goes wrong, it goes very wrong. But sure calipers or better things are good for precision parts.

[@Fredjikrang]

​@@gustavferdman214 I disagree, but I guess it depends on what kind of tolerances you are looking for. I have done some designs where I didn't bother to check, but others that had to be within a thousandth of an inch (0.025mm) in order to work. Even on a quarter million dollar CNC machine that took some tuning, and we had to adjust everything again any time the cutting tool was replaced because of how tight we had to get it.

[@gustavferdman214]

@@Fredjikrang That's why I wrote MOSTLY, and of course it's always a good idea to measure every 10:th or 20:th detail while making a series to be sure. I'm referring to ISO-2768, standard tolerance, +-0,05 mm at its lowest. Obviously it would be a fools game to not perform a control measure while machining lower tolerances.. and considering the machine in the video would be a joke for any real machining I believed you would understand this.

[@ELValenin]

@@Fredjikrang yeah sure because you can just get tolerances like that with a 3d printer cnc

[@peterwilhelmsson4168]

As you've already discovered, you absolutely need a dust collection solution when milling, or something that blows away the dust continuously.

[@carbide1968]

You should always climb cut on a cnc for two reasons. 1. It keeps the end mill from driving into corners and 2. Your surface finish will be awesome in that plastic. I would use a spray bottle of water and just very carefully spray some water in the cuts for better finish and to also keep the plastic from clogging up the end mill. High rpm is good and as far as feed rate keep pushing it up until you break a end mill then back it down. Great idea btw i really wanna try it but don't know anything about g code.

[@NeutroNStrikeR]

Awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing this

[@K3BANG]

This is very cool!

[@Popesta]

A must have for an Anet A8 owner as the whole frame is acrylic and very brittle

[@feltonissimo]

Like this clever method. Would have liked to see you measure the square you cut-out with a set of digital callipers to see the accuracy.

[@fx1c333]

Have you thought about using a lathe Quick Change Tool Post design for the laser and drill parts. If the original design was adapted then 1 bolt would hold the tools in place.

[@detacempaka9992]

akriliknya Marga Cipta bro.. :D nice build 3d machine..

[@No1sonuk]

It's funny that as I was watching your Hypercube build log, I was thinking to myself that it might be possible to make the Chinese 3040 router I just bought operate as a low-Z 3D printer. And now I see you've gone the other way! BTW, having had the thought and gone looking, there ARE videos of such 3040, etc. machines rigged as 3D printers.

[@seabeepirate]

Great video. Maybe a vacuum adapter would help keep the mess down.

[@tombouie]

Quite Amazing

[@johncabrer2328]

I recommend a 1/8" single flute endmill for cutting most plastics. Passes should be no more than 1/8" deep.

[@GrossGeneralization]

1) Did you try it with the carbon tubes on the x-axis? Did sticking with the carbon tubes actually cause any problems? 2) You said it "looked" dimensionally accurate - did you measure it? Measuring the 20x20 square would help us understand how much flex in the machine was changing the dimensions of the final result.

[@bigfilsing]

great vid as always and a great result

[@Tech2C]

Thx

[@VikMKW]

That's a clever use of a dremel! Could you show this process for pcb milling?

[@Tech2C]

Next week...

[@VikMKW]

Tech2C I'll stay tuned :)

[@mbainrot]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/f33RlGBtfpWth6M

[@abc321meins]

Max Bainrot You are the real MVP

[@tiagooliveira95]

You can cut acrylic with a bodged setup, meanwhile I'm here with a real cnc and expensive end mills fighting to get a good cut on acrylic. I have the same cheap end mills but I only use them for wood, I have to try those with acrylic, maybe I will have better luck

[@Snagglepuss1952]

Have you setup air assist on the laser, it should improve your cuts. Great video, now I need another 3d printer. Cheers

[@haligen33]

Throw away the double sided tape and use the luthiers trick of masking tape and super glue. Put tape on your plate, tape on your part, and then some superglue between the tape layers. Holds awesome and stupid easy cleanup.

[@kamleshjethwa4151]

I am really impressed with the kind of cut this printer creates. what is the name model of this printer? and how do I get started ? please provide if there is any video you created.Thanks

[@springwoodcottage4248]

Super useful! Thank you for sharing!

[@hoggif]

Light duty cnc would be so great.. to bad I don't have a garage to contain the chips and dust. I think even with some kind of vacuum attachement it could be difficult to use in the apartment.

[@Robothut]

Great job ! I could use a tool like that. May have to mod one of my printers to do this.

[@michaelgoodfellow4992]

I tried this without the flexible shaft -- mounted the whole dremel on the x axis. It worked, but was very noisy, slow and messy. Also, I could visibly see the mount deforming and the dremel slopping back and forth like a paint brush during the cutting.

[@Tech2C]

That's not good. What were you cutting?

[@michaelgoodfellow4992]

3mm plywood. I was afraid the acrylic might shatter. It didn't occur to me to use a flexible shaft. That would have been a lot less weight to move around. Perhaps I wasn't using a high enough rotation speed or something. I've taken it all apart, but I'll try again one of these days. I wanted to build a separate smaller machine with laser and rotary cutter, as well as a "dust shoe" connected to a vacuum cleaner to suck up sawdust and odor.

[@smeeegheeeed1]

THIS IS AWESOME!!!!

[@justsomeguywashwd_jbm821]

Is it just me, or does anyone else watch these videos & get flashbacks of teachers reminding them to work from the edge or corner (as applicable) so as not to waste material? Also, to the guy making the vid, there's a bunch of mods you could do to make your life easier. Waste material getting everywhere? Risk of shrapnel? Side/top/rear panels, & a door on the front. It might reduce the noise too, especially if you add sound dampening material to the panels, & use a carefully designed door. Fumes? Extractor fan & filter. Additionally, for the cuttings/dust, you could mount an air jet on 1 side of the bit, & some kind of vacuum cleaner nozzle opposite to it.

[@Sam-ch4jh]

Acrylic is easy to cut with laser head, you could use 7w laser head I guess (Not the one used for engraving)

[@wojciechmrozik8728]

great video. slowly learn from design to CAM. i want more!

[@charlesworton4020]

Very nice result! I'd be interested to see what results could be obtained from milling aluminum. You could create a negative image of the quadcopter in aluminum, then use that as a mold from which you could cast numerous pieces in epoxy resin (virtually indestructible). That would be a rather neat project! >Charlie

[@Tech2C]

Ha great idea! I'll try aluminium but I don't like my chances... we'll see!

[@sotm6078]

Definetly need a dustshoe vac!

[@DueyMiller-rk9dr]

A personal trick of mine is to put your cutting machine in a cardboard box with the top off. That way all the chips stay in the machine and don't go flying through the room.

[@pepemoraromay]

Very nice

[@_MoRZiLLo50]

Amazing! Simply Amazing! Thanks! :)

[@marcel5837]

Looks very nice, could you do some engraving tests as well?

[@Tech2C]

Sure

[@insidelectronics]

I would be interested to see some tolerance measurements of this.

[@richbuilds_com]

Very interesting video and great results! I'm planning on trying something similar with an Ender 3. That acrylic looked way too brittle for a quad-copter frame though!

[@thekassaiba6694]

I interest your ender 3 build, i have ender 3 to. I know i write 1 year later but you do or have any information for this you build?

[@richbuilds_com]

@@thekassaiba6694 A year later (what a year!): Sadly not: Covid meant I've pretty much worked all the hours and had precious build/fun time.

[@thekassaiba6694]

@@richbuilds_com thanks the answer

[@nivvis]

You need to vacuum as you go or install a vacuum to the frame!

[@tiagotiagot]

How about attaching a vacuum nozzle with bristles to the end effector?

[@3dgussner958]

Great that it works, do you think a dust collector would work too as it would add some mass to the extruder holder...but would leave much less mess during/after cutting. Would be interesting what material the corexy hypercube can cut. Soft wood fore sure but where it stops working accurate without destroying itself.

[@Tech2C]

Yeah it would be good to vacuum as it cuts. I'm not sure if the gantry could handle dragging a vacuum tube along with it but it's certainly worth a try.

[@gerardnovellaxicoy768]

@@Tech2C How about using an extension of the tube much smaller than the vacuum and the vacuum working outside and not on the extruder?

[@antonwinter630]

thanks for sharing. i gotta try this

[@Dennis-pe6zx]

Excellent job... Would love to know how to hook one of those up..

[@alana314]

Amazing. My dremel overheats and smokes if I leave it on too long, did you have to deal with that? Maybe programmed breaks would help

[@PyroBoothy]

Awesome video. This has inspired me. Question: is it possible to reverse what is being cut so you would be left with a 20x20mm hole in the sheet plastic instead of having a 20x20mm square piece. Hope this makes sense lol. Thankyou.

[@hyperhektor7733]

0:47 to precise these aren't end mills, but burr cutters. They work more like a metal file , taking lots of tiny chips of the workpiece. Real end mills use bigger cuts and can be compared to a metal saw. They have usually 1 to 6 Flutes. Burrs usually cut slower but need less cutting force. 17:00 just use a cnc dust shoe kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5e7hXyrZ7ugg6c

[@joeytheghost4211]

Good stuff

[@ryan_layne]

With the proper laser and settings you should have no trouble at all cutting that level of detail and thickness of acrylics. I have done it many, many times. Also, I am surprised the color of the material makes a difference in cutting ability. I never had trouble cutting any color or transparency of acrylics. Perhaps your laser is a different wavelength that doesn't cut as many materials.

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

Looks good, I just don't want all that crap in my workshop. Luckily I'm having a superstrong laser diode coming my way ;) (Like 10 Watt or so).

[@vadymborys4754]

Is it possible to convert modern 3d printers to cnc in the same way? For example bambu lab a1, ender 3, neptune 3 pro, etc

[@albundi2985]

AWESOME!

[@deathblowhere]

Hey Tech2C! Big thanks for the tutorial and post processor file! Works fine with Autodesk Inventor CAM as well! But could you specify please what type of acrylic did you cut here - cast or extruded? I've tried to cut the last and it just melted down after few seconds of milling creating ball of plastic on the endmill (using 5000 rpm, 1.5 mm end mill and your speeds and feeds). I guess I should be more aggressive with the feed and use some ice/soap water as a coolant

[@AbdurRahim-by9my]

hello, you should make a mini dust collector like actual real CNC connect with a flexible pipe .. I hope that will be helpful. I like your show.

[@Tech2C]

Yes that would help.

[@georgeb9256]

I have just had a go at getting this onto my 3D printer without success! Having problems with Fusion 360 in that it keeps saying" invalid tool settings , need to change the tool!" but does not give guidance as to what to change! Any suggestions please? Thanks.

[@tdscwhelan]

Maybe a dust collector mount?

[@dragnet53]

Man I can almost do that project. I have a Dremel 3000 rotary tool. It supposedly can cut metal.

[@TheNitroG1]

your probably going to find that your 3d printer isn't structurally up to the task of cutting metal.

[@Nico1232123]

Awesome video.. would be interesting to see if its able to cut aluminium

[@Tech2C]

I will try soon...

[@Nico1232123]

Tech2C nice👍

[@inking4517]

Im a newbie for this can u plz explaing the folder thing and the code thing u did

[@Panzer1398]

and im assuming that you didnt need to modify/update the firmware of your 3d printer control board right? since its marlin/g-code, it would just use the same routes as a conventional 3d printer, but with a negative z-axis value(s)

[@birdwatchingwithdrrajasaur4410]

Will it be possible to use a servo to switch the power driller on/off and regulate! And the computer will do it all and you won't have to switch it on mentally!

[@northerner94]

please can you make an updated video since fusion 360 is also updated, its a bit difficult to follow your steps on a newer version of fusion 360, thanks

[@HamidSBaig]

Great Job! What is the maximum thickness of Acrylic you think you are able to cut using your current setup?

[@spinnoxx]

How about making a mount for the finished part and going over it again with the laser so that the details are better.

[@HidekiShinichi]

Daniel Schellein if you go to that extend why not laser cut it in first place?

[@FilmFactry]

Could you try other "Quad copter" material like a cabon fiber sheet or G10 epoxy board. I'm sure you'd have to go slower, but that would be amazining if it could do that. Acrylic is a bit too brittle.

[@Tech2C]

I chose to cut this shape as it is intricate and a worthy test. I'm not planning to fly with an acrylic frame, but it would look great with LED's lighting it up :) I think you could cut CF, just be very careful with the dust released as it is very bad for your health. Peeps usually cut CF submerged because of this.

[@haythamfpv]

Hi! when the printer finishes the cut made with your gcode generator it deactivates all axis and the z axis starts to go down with gravity, isn't there a way to end the gcode with the z axis at like 20mm above the up stock? with the z axis motor not deactivated

[@Starteller]

Which printer I could easily buy to attach something like that and make PCB?

[@avejst]

Good idea :-) Thanks for sharing :-)

[@stevechang6677]

Can you etch photo on clear acrylic for LED display or text cut outs such as cursive names ect.

[@JyskMaker]

Use 1 fluet end mills, butch better to move the heat.

[@haythamfpv]

Hi, thank you for this video! I followed your instructions but my gcode cuts on the inside of the perimeter, not on the outside, resulting in a smaller part. How do I solve this? I tried going from right cut to left cut but it didn't make a difference