[Milsurplus] Plexiglas work

[John Hensley]

Dave, 
Plexiglass can be worked but you should read up on it before you dive in.
The chief problems with it are heat (melting) and breakage (cracking).  Thekey to cutting it on a table saw is to have a very very sharp blade and one whichwill remove the plastic quickly.  A 40 or 60 tooth carbide blade, if new, will workbetter than others.  
For drilling, you have to have extremely sharp hole saws and the pilot drill mustbe relieved of its rake by putting a very small flat on the drill point edges.  Weoften call this "dressing for brass" because like brass, plexiglass will pull a drillbit in faster than you expect and breakage & injury are often the result.  A goodwork procedure is to put the plexiglass and a thick piece of wood together so thatwhen the drill goes to break through, its beyond the plexiglass.  I used to cuta piece of wood the same size as the plexiglass and stick them together with doublesided masking tape and also taped the edges together.  When you drill, use a slowspeed and "test" drill a few holes in some scrap first.
A modern sign shop that details items for industry will have an engraving machine that can do all that safely and probably not for much more than you will invest settingup the tools to do it.
Hope this helps,
John