Does anyone know and cool ways to “paint” or add detail to lexan, plastic or other materials that may be suitable for roboteers to jazz up their bots?
When I want to add a cool logo or decal to my robot’s body I use clear lexan for the chassis. Than I design a logo on my PC, print it out and stick it on the inside of the chassis using double sided tape. this helps to protect it from damage and rain.
Your local auto store sells a spray paint that is used to paint plastics. This stuff dries and looks really good aswell. I use this for exterior painting.
Since you use clear lexan any rc hobby shop sells spray paints fro clear car bodies. Just paint the inside of the lexan and the outside will have a great look. Just remeber to do light coats but many other wise drip marks will screw it all up. And no mater what you do you wont be able to cover up the drip marks.
Paul
I would go with the R/C car paint, as PK suggested.
Sounds good. I will test this on scrap pieces of lexan I have.
Does anyone know any good ways to cut lexan? I bought some plexiglass from the hardware store and I haven’t been able to cut it without cracking. I used the finest tooth blade for my jig saw and it still cracks. I might have to buy a new blade for my bandsaw and try that. I also tried searching the forums and the Lynxmotion hompage for tips and came up with nothing. I remeber seeing a thread before 
Just a thought, reading some of the prep tips for painting an RC car body might help. When I ran my rc’s, I noticed the bodies came out much better after taking my time while prepping.
Use a Hacksaw. Its so easy and the best way to cut plastics. A jigsaw with a metal blade also works really well but you need to clamp a metal ruler in place to guide you. And than you need a metal file to finely scrape it perfectly straight. Dosen’t take up a lot of time, you just need a little skill and precision. Ive been doing it this way for about 3 years now (both methods) and it works great for me.
The best way to cut lexan is to use a straight edge a metal ruler os some sort works the best. They have special knives that look like a hook at your local home improvement store like home depot or loew’s. It’s in the plexiglass section.
Your score the lexan once with the edge and then keep go over the same score mark over and over. You bascilly carve a line into the lexan.
Then clamp it to a table where your score mark is even with the edge of the table. Make sure that it is securly clamped down. Then in one quick move lean into the lexan if you scored it deep enough and pushed down on it evenly the lexan should crack in a straight line. The line that you scored.
I used to do this with big 4ft by 8ft sheets and a steel yard/meter stick.
Once you get down its easy and the fastest way to do it safely.
Paul
I tried a hacksaw also and it cracked. I’ll have to try clamping it with the metal ruler. Thanks! 8)
for internal cuts the other trick with some hard plastics is to drill a small hole at the point where your cut will end. it has something to do with reducing the stress at the end of the cut but I have actually forgotten the long winded version of the reason. 
The post isn’t very specific. Do you mean cutting a workable piece from a large sheet, or cutting intricate parts as structural components?
I use a table saw to cut out larger pieces. Carbide blade, saftey classes, feed very slowly, let the blade do the work.
If you’re making small parts then you need a band saw. Slow the speed down, and feed the parts slowly. You need a narrow blade for tight radius cuts.
Lexan is way more forgiving than acrylic. Acrylic just melts and bonds to the blade. Are you sure you have polycarbonate, and not acrylic?
I find the best way to cut all plastic is with a Non-ferous metals blade in the table saw. It also works great for Al.
Guys, it’s simple, use delrin … it cuts and machines like metal. 8)
Awe nuts! I missed where you said plexiglass! Plexiglass IS acrylic. It’s useless in robotics. I’m sorry to be a buzzkill but it’s just too brittle to be of any use in building robots. Even if you get past the cutting problem unless it’s a really big and thick part without any unsupported protrusions, it’s likely to break as soon as it’s put under load. 
Simple other that the cost…
The facts don’t support that statement. Sheets of black delrin are cheaper than sheets of black lexan from my supplier. Of course clear lexan is cheaper, but we’re talking about a few dollars, and I don’t use clear plastic.
The plastic isn’t a big cost factor in a typical total robot budget amyway. Why worry about saving $10 on plastic when good motors are $25 each and good servos start around $35 each…
I’d much rather spend a few extra dollars and get materials that are a not a pain to work with.
Dratz! I just spent the past couple of hours having the plexiglass melt on me and then having to clean up the edges! I’m really happy with how it turned out, but I need to get my hands on some lexan. Or find a company that’ll do the cutting for me. Back to the drawing board!
Check out the body i made using both lexan and acrylic (acrylic for the left and right sides and lexan for the front, back, top, and bottom). I used a hacksaw to cut it and a file to smooth edges. Very fine sandpaper would also help to do this. http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0002.jpg
That chassis looks really good, Joe.
Thanks a lot. That is after about 15 hours of work (theres over 60 #4 screw holes in the body 
). I will be uploading the final result to my thread in the projects topic. Check there for a better look @ what I did.
