Best plastic for CNC machining thin LED covers?

[Charlotte DAS]

First time working with plastics, so apologies if this is a simple question. Looked around and haven’t been able to find a good fit so far.

I’m looking for a plastic that is:

– Slightly flexible (needs to bent approx 1mm per 40mm)

– Possible to use in thin (1-2mm) sheets

– CNC machinable

– Available/cheap

– Reasonably high deformation temperature (in case the LED strip makes contact with the plastic. I’m guessing at least 70C.

– available in translucent white (guessing this isn’t a problem for most plastics though)

Does such a plastic exist?!!

I was thinking polypropylene would be perfect, but it has quite a lot deformation temp (read online that injection temp is 35-60C… seems low to me though) and apparently is difficult to machine.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Bean 86]

Polycarbonate maybe. Perfectly machinable, available from black, milky white up yo fully transparent, flexible and pretty cheap of we’re talking about 1-2mm sheets.

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