Building The Block
I bought a larger piece of acrylic than needed to make the perspex block. Here’s the process I used to do it…
I took a template, and sized it to fit into my rangefinder top.
I then cut the pieces I’ll need for making my cuts into the block.
This will need to be the first part to cut out. I taped the template piece to the block.
I scored the block, along the template, with an exacto knife.
I put masking tape on both sides of the block to protect it while it’s in the vise during cutting.
The block was then clamped into the vise.
I’ve never cut block acrylic before. I believe the easiest way to cut it is by using a band saw. Since I don’t have access to a band saw, I used a hand saw. This saw is very sharp, but it took a long time to get through the entire block…
After about 45 minutes of cutting, I finally had two separate blocks…
I now have a more manageable piece to work with.
I was thinking that maybe the reason the hand saw took so long was because it had really large teeth. So, I decided to try a different saw, that had smaller teeth…
It seemed to work a little better, but the design of that particular saw doesn’t really allow you to apply very much pressure while you’re cutting…
Time to try a hack saw, which has the same kind of teeth, but a longer blade and allows you do add more pressure…
The hack saw works MUCH better. The strangest thing is, a portion of my blade is missing some teeth, and that area seems to cut through the acrylic the quickest…
The block should now be the correct length.
Time to now cut the odd angles…
Masking tape added to protect the acrylic from the vise.
Mounted in the vise, ready for cutting.
First angle cut completed.
Straight cut completed.
Mounted and ready for the last angle cut.
Angles complete!
The final cut that needs to be made…
Because of the odd angles on the top of the piece, I had to use the piece that was just removed in order to mount it in the vise.
The final cut is complete.
Final block.
After a couple of hours of sanding with medium and fine grit sandpaper…
Not too shabby…