Slicing & Dicing a Sheet of Acrylic

[joemadeus]

Hello,

I need to have a sheet of 1/8" acrylic sliced into hundreds of small, long strips. I've tried drawing what I need but obviously I took the wrong approach: when I validate the design, the software wants to close all the unconnected cutting lines, and so ruins the design. Is this the right way to go about it? Or should I design each slice as a separate, closed component?

I've attached the drawing. It's not complete, since I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before I started drawing everything I need. In any case, I think you get the drift.

Thanks!


-Joe

[Tech2]

You are the designer - we are the slicer and dicer! Just draw one of the rectangles with the hole. Then set the order quantity to how many you want. Use only closed shapes.

[joemadeus]

Ok, slicer & dicer I attached an EMS drawing with the nine closed shapes I need for what I'm building. I'm using 1/8" polycarbonate (acrylic will also work, but they all need to be the same material.) When I validate and price the job, it comes out to way more than my budget (by an order of magnitude, actually.)

I noticed that I can't specify a drilled hole for the 0.98" holes in these parts. Am I missing something? Why is this so expensive?


-Joe

[Tech2]

Use Air inside option in Z field on numeric bar for all thru holes.
Any other type of plastic will bring the price way down.

[joemadeus]

The only problem is that the material should be clear -- polycarbonate and acrylic fit the bill, we're still talking about a lot of money. Incidentally, the parts in titanium (I was curious) will run the same amount as polycarbonate, which seemed a little odd.

Are the holes in these pieces going to be drilled? The selection is grayed-out and the validation says I need to select that every time I run it.

-Joe

[Tech2]

Please review Forum Rules.

Try selecting Acetal and then Special Material and enter Clear Polyester.

You are getting an error "Please set Z to Air inside for highlighted lines." Why don't you follow that advice? Same for other errors - you don't seem to be resolving error messages as directed.

[joemadeus]

Actually, I did resolve that issue: the previous "Tech2" suggested I do so and so it was done. My most recent post was talking about that -- my apologies for not posting the corrected design. And I had no idea that you folks would provide clear acetal if I asked for it -- that's the advice I needed.

But my previous post still holds. I can't specify "drilled" for these holes and, for some reason, using polycarbonate runs me the same amount as titanium. Pricing aside, that suggests to me that I'm doing something wrong. I'd like to know if I am or am not because if what I'm doing wrong applies to using acetal as well, I'd like to correct it.

Attached is the corrected design.

Thanks.


Joe

[Tech2]

You can't specify drilled because Z = Air Inside which means the holes goes thru, in which case it should not matter how the hole is made. Nevertheless you could specify to drill in Comments To Machinist (although it might increase price).

As for material. First I apologize but must reverse my advice to use Polyester. It seems you have identified a software issue (you are not doing anything wrong) and will advise you to select Acetal and under special material request use "Clear Polycarbonate (per tech support)".