How to Drill Holes Into Acrylic

When fixing your cut-to-size clear acrylic to a wall you can either use adhesive or drill holes and mount it with fixings. If you know where you'd like to place your drilled holes we can make drilling the holes stress-free by doing them for you. Simply select ‘yes’ for drilled holes on one of our product pages, and select the position of each hole, the diameter (minimum 5mm) and the distance from the edge (minimum 20mm). If your drilled holes are a little more complicated than this then you can also send us a diagram of where you'd like your holes to be.

For some projects, you may not know where you need your drilled holes or require extra holes and will need to drill them yourself. We’ve created this simple step-by-step guide to help you.

To drill holes in your acrylic you will need:

• A flat surface such as a piece of wood to support the acrylic
• A standard steel drill or HSS drill
• Masking tape
• A pencil
• A measuring tape
• A clamp or weights to hold the acrylic in place

To prevent damaging the acrylic whilst you work:

• Don't remove the protective film on the acrylic.
• Use a slightly worn-down drill bit, new drill bits can be too sharp and may crack the plastic.
• Place something between the clamp/weights and acrylic to prevent scratching.

Secure the acrylic to a flat surface such as a solid piece of wood. Your drill will also penetrate this surface so make sure it's not your dining table! Use the clamp or weights to secure the plastic in place, this will stop it spinning or moving when drilling.

Measure where you would like your holes to be. If these are on the edge, the distance between the hole and the edge should be at least twice the thickness of the acrylic. So for 3mm acrylic, your hole needs to be at least 6mm from the edge. Place some masking tape where you would like the hole and mark where you intend to drill. The masking tape will help prevent the drill bit from damaging your plastic.

Set your drill to a medium setting and place it perpendicular to the acrylic on the mark you measured in Step 2. Lightly press the drill down into the acrylic until it penetrates the supporting material beneath, then gently bring it back through the hole without switching it off. Drill slowly and steadily, forcing the drill through the acrylic could cause it to split or break. If you do get stuck pull back gently with the drill in the reverse setting.