One way of identifying the two is to look at the edge. If it
is clear, it's acrylic. If it has a blue tint, it's
polycarbonate.

Frank

"Toller" wrote in message
...
The current American Woodworker has an article on making
clear router baseplates. And... I found a large sheet of
1/4" clear plastic at a garage sale yesterday. So I
decided to make a base.

The plastic cut, drilled, and routed very easily, with
none of the brittleness I associate with acrylic; so I
figured it must be polycarbonate (which I have not used
before).

The article says to use either acrylic or polycarbonate,
and to "flame finish" it.
As soon as I touched it with the flame, it caught on fire!
(actually I tested it on a piece of scrap first, so
nothing was lost...)

So what kinda plastic do I have? If acrylic and polycarb
can be flame finished, then I must have something
different?