How do we use Polycarbonate Sheets? (How to cut them, attach plastic pieces, etc)
There’s not really any particular or fixed way to use Polycarbonate Sheets. They’re generally quite easy to bend using pliers and a vice, and can be cut with a penknife or a good pair of scissors. The most common way to attach them is probably to drill holes at the attachment points and attach them with screws or cable tie.
There are multiple ways to cut polycarb.
Bandsaw is an option, however the sides will need some fininshing and also holes need to be drilled out which might take some time
Scissors and knives are also an option but never used this method
Waterjet is also another way for accuracy and uses the least time since the max thiccness is 0.07’. Takes around 3 minutes at most for my vex polycarb cuts
To attach them, drill holes for screws (remember to add tolerance to the hole, something like 4.2mm drill bit would do if you’re using m4 bolts) and attach them with a bolt and nut.
Edit: rewording
What exactly do you mean by leave tolerance?
Make the holes slightly larger than the screw size, usually +0.2-0.4mm. This way the screw can go through smoothly instead of threading its way through the polycarb
Thanks
11/64" is the drill bit size you’ll want for VEX #8 screws.
Along the lines of cutting with scissors, I’ve found that tin snips work extremely well, and they’re kind of like an “industrial scissors”.
This has worked well for us too. It’s a very cheap and easy way to get decent cuts in polycarbonate.