Working on an edge lit acrylic sign for my better half… quick question does acrylic always engrave clear? I was hoping for a frosted look. Any suggestions on where to start with power levels and engrave speed to achieve that effect would be awesome ( @Brandon_Satterfield another fun use for your K40)
Back off on the power and speed up.
The trick is to have enough speed that the plastic only vaporizes, but never absorbs heat and melts.
You normally do get a frosted look, but if you get the acrylic hot, it re-fuses and melts away the frosted surface. It should look pretty much like sandblasted glass.
Start around 2-3ma and 150-200mm/sec. Focus ON the surface as sharp as you can.
good to know, (moved to Material and setting category)
@Alex_Krause awesome sir, I still haven’t finished the cutting board, or the V-bit sine art, or…
Have 3 products under development… Simply not enough time in a day.
Also cast acrylic will work better with a laser and give you the “frosted” look. Extruded acrylic tends to melt. It doesn’t cut or engrave as well as cast acrylic does…
@Alex_Krause my laser cutter can’t do raster engraving, so I usually use about 2-3mA Power and use normal engraving at speed 1500mm/min… that always ends up very frosted looking.
Always use cast acrylic for engraving. If you want some excitement try lasering polycarbonate it will engrave as either blue, yellow, red, and possibly other colours. You never know which colour you are going to get until you start.
@Stephen_Smith Doesn’t that also release a toxic gas?
polycarbonate isn’t the same as PVC (Polyvinyl chloride). Polycarbonate is hard for the laser to cut and easy to catch fire, distort, or melt… I don’t think it’s any more toxic then acrylic.
@cory_brown Ah. Okay, thanks for the clarification.
I have always found PC to be very easy to engrave but do be wary of the fumes they are most unpleasant.