by stashapistachio » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:29 am
It difficult to cut because it has a habit of exploding or melting if you cut too fast/slow. A router does best, you'll also want some sort of polishing wheel
THE FUMES FROM MELTING ACRYLIC ARE DANGEROUS
If you want to mould it... Look into plastic injection moulding. A good mould would be aluminium or steel. But they're super expensive to have made. You might be able to use wood (I used it for vacuum forming, but I;m not sure it would work for moulds, and could be prone to leaving flashing, but you can just cut & buff that off.
You also need somewhere and someway to heat it. You can buy thermoset & thermoplastic pellets. Thermoplastic is much more expensive, but can be remelted pretty well.
PMMA is probably the most skin safe acrylic, and probably the cheapest. But you need to be careful how you colour it, and what polising compounds you choose to use.
I like resin, seriously, good resin work looks much the same as good acrylic and much easier. And you can colour it better..
I wouldn't buy acrylic jewelllery (especially homemade) unless it was inlaid or I wore it in earskins anyway