Hi guys,
I am new to signs and have been asked to make one for a company. Just cut out letters from 3mm gold mirror acrylic that they want stuck to their shop wall. I have read on here various methods for sticking acrylic such as carpet tape etc, but need something permanent and in rolls or sheet of 600mm wide by mm. Could anyone recommend anything suitable?
I would ideally like it to also allow me to adhere mirror perspex to clear or similar for rigidity as we will be cutting mirror but at 3mm it is too thin and warps.
We bought our tape years ago. We bought 2" wide tape and I just lay down several strips. It's not the least expensive tape in the world but it's done the job for me in the past. With the use of nesting, I can typically get very good yeild out of both the acrylic and the tape. From U-Line, the tape is 2"x50yds for about $50. You need about 8 yards. So the additional cost is about $8. If the letters are large you could always use strips of gold line tape or something like it. That would be a much more economical way of doing it.
Hey there! It’s my first post here. I had a K40 machine in the past years, now I finally managed to bring home a brand new chinese machine, equipped with a Reci W4 tube, Ruida G and finally an adjustable Z axis with autofocus. I successfully set up my machine in LightBurn, did some cuts and some engraves in last days… wood (plywood, mdf) is fine, but mirror acrylic is giving me headaches.
What are your best pratices to obtain clean and clear engraves on it?
I am engraving it on back, matte side (not with mirror facing up, of course). I am leaving its plastic peel on on reflective side.
When I cut, I get this “halo” in some parts:
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About engrave, I get lines in it. Did some trial and error with different speed, power, line interval, but I can’t obtain a very clean and even fill.
Both cut and engrave are performed with air assist (ACO-008, should be rated around 100-120L/Min) on.
(these are tags around 25x25 mm I am cutting for my girlfriends hobbies).
Thank you for reading
Well, yes. I can turn it off, but can’t lower air output… I will try to engrave (and cut too?) with air assistance off. I also have an ACO-318 (60L/min) around, I was using it with my old K40, will try it too.
About the orientation, what do you mean by extraction? The machine is extracting fumes from top-back and from under the cutting area. I don’t think it’s related to fume extraction its direction, seems pretty random, but I will try again and pay more attention to this!
I mean the machine’s extraction on the back, I have had cases where I could clearly see where the “suction” came from, but it was on a special plywood.
Yes, you should preferably not cool your cut through acrylic, with this material you should not blow any ash or material out of the cut because there is nothing. But of course the lens must be protected and the flames must not occur too much, but with as little air as possible.
For acrylic you generally want very little air, mostly just enough to keep the lens clean. If your rig doesn’t have an adjustment valve then get thee to a hardware store and come up with something.
I always mask both sides with paper. It keeps the molten acrylic fumes from depositing on the plexi which causes that haze. You need to increase the power a little to cut through tht tape but it works well once you’ve got the right settings.
For reasonably smooth cut edges you need to not go to fast. You want the molten acrylic to have time to kind of flow and smooth out. Too fast makes for more jaggedy edges.
What speed, power, and interval settings are you using for the engrave?
Too close an interval (too many dpi) can make an uglier engrave than too coarse an interval. There’s definitely a “just right” setting.
Link to XISHUN Acrylic
Okay, thank you for these tips! What kind of masking tape is better? I’m using standard white paper masking tape, I thought its irregular texture (and maybe uneven thickness too) will affect engraving, won’t it? Is it better to use that smoother painter’s tape (that kind coming often in blue or yellow color)?
Unsatisfied with the above engraves, I did some tests and now I am engraving (without masking tape) at 400 mm/sec,15% power, 0.055 mm interval, roughly 640 lines per inch.
Photos I posted above were engraved at different settings, this photos are the latest. (please don’t mind all these marks and dirt, it was a scrap piece of rose gold acrylic).
Forgot to mention, the machine is equipped with a FL 63.5mm lens.
I’m still not very happy about the result, thin lines are almost to disappear, and if I lower the power to obtain a less deep engrave, it gets worse.
640 LPI is WAY too high for your co2 laser. I’d cut that in 1/2 and go from there.
I’d make a bunch of 15-20mm shapes. (stars are nice because you can assess performance in a large open area like the stars center as well as on small features like out at the tips)
Run each one at the same power and speed but only vary the LPI to find the sweet spot. Start low, like 200 dpi and increase maybe 10% at a time until it looks nice. Too low gives obvious lines separated from each other. Once you pass through the sweet spot and go too high you’ll see things start to degrade again.
For masking I’ve always used paper transfer tape for vinyl decals, but it can be a real pain to pick bits of tape out of tiny shapes like the center of letter o or lower case e.
Just recently I’ve been playing with plain paper (like printer paper) and School Glue.
School Glue?, I hear you ask… what the heck is School Glue?
Elmers School Glue is just cheap white glue but it is water soluble even after it dries. (makes it easier to clean up after the 2nd graders)
Once a project is engraved you can just soak it in water for a bit and the masking paper just slides right off with no tedious picking of small bits.
I wet the paper a bit to make it floppy and flexible, smear a little glue on my workpiece then stick the paper down and roll it with a brayer to get all the air bubbles out.
Let it dry and then engrave.
I’ve only used the paper and glue a couple of times but so far I’m liking it.
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