วีดีโอ

For the example in this video, I used a generic contact cement I had on hand. More recently, I've used gorilla polyurethane glue because I had a lot of that from other project work I was doing. Both seemed to work fine and have held up so far through regular use of the coasters.

Not the same, but mounting board might work (I've not tried it myself). This is a link to the specific poster board I used -- www.michaels.com/product/22-x-28-poster-board-by-creatology-10525550 The main reason I went with the poster board is because it has multiple "layers," and the black layer is more of a coating on it. For whatever reason, it gave better results than when I used black cardstock or thick black construction paper. You can see the layering of the poster board towards the end of the video when I pull the acylic off and it shows the white inner layer of the poster board where the black coating had been burned off by the laser.

White doesn't work very well with my laser. The ones that are cut out in the video were done with these parameters: 30 mm/min, 100% power, 5 passes Unfortunately, it has to go so slowly and with a lot of passes so it tends to deform the shapes.

I do my focusing on the top of the glass to ensure I don't clip it or scratch it while doing the engraving. I'll see if I can put together a short video this weekend just of the focusing methods and the different results it provides with my laser. *edit to add* I will still be making the focus detail video, but I broke my last glass sheet and had to order more. Once it arrives I’ll get the video created.

For the version in the video, with the image border and the layered content, it's 12m 53s per coaster. I have an optimized one where I used the image trace in Adobe Illustrator to get cleaner paths and that one takes 9m 48s per coaster.

@@CubicleNinja Thank you! I appreciate it!

Here you go: 2X Ultra Cover Matte Clear Spray Paint and Primer In One (NET WT 12-oz) www.lowes.com/pd/Rust-Oleum/5014069603

I’m sure there are better places, but I just got it on Amazon. This is the red I used: a.co/d/1rpyAfW

The AtomStack I use is a "40W Machine" but is only 5-5.5W output from the diode laser itself. With these sorts of diode lasers, they cannot actually etch or engrave on clear materials directly, so you have to rely on a base or backing material to catch the laser as it completely passes through the clear material in order to get any sort or marking. In my video, I'm having it burn/engrave onto poster board beneath the acrylic to cause the etching effect on the backside of the acrylic. If I go with too much power, the laser will burn straight through the poster board too quickly and not have an opportunity to mark up onto the acrylic itself. A lot of the newer, more powerful, diode options use laser coupling to get 10, 20, 36, or 40W output with multiple 4, 5, or 6W diodes coupled together to provide the higher output power. I've not used one of those, but since they are still diode-based, they should still have the exact same issue with cutting or marking transparent materials since that challenge is all about the laser type and not the laser power. One thing you can do as a test without wasting any of your acrylic is to use a simple black poster board as your tester and find the settings you need to use to burn off just the top black layer but not go all the way through the material itself. That will, hopefully, give you a solid starting point to do your material tester on the acrylic without going through nearly as much trial and error since the acrylic is considerably more expensive than a $1 sheet of poster board. Good luck!!

I'll continue on, thanx. Mine is a multiple diode with an output of 36w.@@CubicleNinja

i managed to do 3 material test pieces and the numbers i lit on were 5280 speed and 18 - 19 % power. I ran with that and did my niece and nephews christmas led night lights. Each child has 3 pieces of acrylic to change out, niece has Disney Frozen characters and nephew has marvel comics characters.. it came ok, no bubble explosions anyway, just had to be very careful cleaning them. Oh!!! and by the way, i tried the soap trick and that wasn't working so i went to a dry sheet on black card stock... That did pretty good, i have the tempora but haven't tried it.@@CubicleNinja

Great to hear, thank you for the update! I'm glad the dry sheet with black card stock worked well for you. That's my favorite method now (I use poster board instead of cardstock for the different material density on the paper). The paint method worked well when I tried it, but it took so much longer and required a bunch of additional clean-up (and I'm really lazy!). I've made a bunch of different acrylic lights as gifts lately and I really like the way they turn out and the kids absolutely adore them.

It’s one of the Mandalore fonts from the Mandalorian show. www.dafont.com/mandalore.font

@@CubicleNinja Thanks for your reply...

I tried several of the metallic / glittery acrylics and couldn’t quite get the settings dialed in to get a good result with crisp lines with my laser.

Thank you for the kind words, I’m very glad the videos might help you out. I’ve definitely had a lot of fun with my laser so far making gifts and playing around with all the different materials. Good luck to you as you get started with everything!

I've not tried it with 2mm acrylic before, so I'd love to hear your results. Related to your experience, I ordered another set from a different vendor that listed at 4mm, but they ended up being around 2.8mm. When I ran them through with the same settings, I ended up having to do a lot of scrubbing with a washcloth and warm, soapy water to get off the residue (it did all come off at that thickness, but was a LOT more work to clean up). I'm assuming that the thinner material causes it to melt the coating on the poster board more, resulting in it adhering onto the acrylic.

I'm very glad you found it helpful, good luck!

Exactly right. There are other videos showing methods to do it with a metal backing plate or certain types of paint. The key is to have that material that the laser won’t pass directly through to get you the nice etching effect.

Thank you for the kind words. Unfortunately, I do not know much about the x7, but I did some digging and have some suggestions for you to try, what settings have you tried so far? The research I've done to compare with my machine, I think you would need to use a speed of around 1300 mm/m with a maximum power setting of 65%, and still use the thick poster board or other blackout material to etch on glass. For marking aluminum, it looks like you would use 500 mm/m and a power of 80%. Marking aluminum (and other metals) can be very strange with diode lasers. I am planning to do a video on it soon. This link to a parameter table provided by atomstack is one of the sources I used when I was trying to compare your laser to my a5 m50 pro to determine how the settings would change - cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/1404/9717/files/LightBurn_X7pro_Laser_Engraver_parameter_Table.pdf?v=1663232883

Thank you very much for the kind words (and the sub!). I’m currently working on a video around cutting and engraving various colors of acrylic.

Sure, here's a link to a zip with the lightburn file for the glass material tester -- cubicleninja.com/material-tester-glass.zip

Thank you!

Thank you for the thumbs-up. Your earlier comment was completely fine, by the way. I appreciate you sharing your opinion and definitely don't want to cause issues for anyone. I'm just someone who is really enjoying my new laser and wanting to share my excitement and findings with people!

I'm not sure, it could be related to settings or needing to reset the configuration. It also could depend on how old the diode / laser component is on your unit. Here's a post on the Lightburn forums where someone had that issue, but you could also reach out to Atomstack support at -- support@atomstack.com and they can provide detailed troubleshooting for you. Good luck! forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/atomstack-a5-pro-laser-moves-but-won-t-fire/71858/3

@@CubicleNinja grazie mille. Ci proverò. L'ho acquistato da Banggood ad ottobre 2021. Rientra nella garanzia?

The warranty from them is only One Year Warranty for laser machines, and 6 months for laser modules, but they will still support troubleshooting to help you identify the issue (even if they won't replace it for free).

Yep, I clean the laser after every ~8-hours of use. I use a gentle brush around the enclosure and exterior of the lens and then a lint-free camera lens cloth on the lens to get everything off and keep the focus solid.

​@@CubicleNinjahi thanks for your response, can you use a camera lens cleaning kit

@@rogerburley5000 that’s what I’ve been doing. Fair warning, though, I’m still pretty new to this so I’m not sure if there are better ways!

@@CubicleNinja thanks

Sure, the details around the settings are in the different videos, but for a TLDW; 4.00mm Clear Acrylic - Using the black poster board method - 3000 mm/min, 14% max power 1.6 mm Clear Glass - Using the black poster board method - 1250 mm/min, 75% max power

I'm not sure if it will have an issue longer term, but I've not noticed any degradation and I've done quite a few acrylic pieces. I just recently started doing glass (the first time was right before this video, actually). The laser is rated to work on glass and acrylic, so I'm making an assumption that it will be no worse than other materials as far as damaging the lens.

It may give more detailed results, but this example shows every step I took create the wolf image at the end. No paint, no special treatments. Just glass on top of the heavy poster board with my honeycomb bed, and then 30 seconds or so under water to clean off the poster board bits that were stuck to the glass when it finished. I was really surprised with how good the results turned out even if I get really close to the image.

@@CubicleNinja I'm a newb.. picked up some glass yesterday but haven't tried yet

@@robertarmstrong2323 I’m still figuring a lot of this stuff out myself. Got my first laser about 7 months ago. Good luck to you, my biggest learning so far is that it’s all about the material tests!

Adobe Illustrator and Lightburn

I didn’t have much luck with drawing paper or craft paper, the slightly reflective quality of the posterboard is what made the difference in my tests. I’ll try running through on laser GRBL and see if the same settings work over there with the posterboard and will let you know my results

@@CubicleNinja thanks i look forward to it

@@yeasucrazyg600rc8 I tested in LaserGRBL with my 4mm blanks and it worked with similar settings. s min 0%, s max 14%, 3000 lines/min, 1 pass. Used the same black posterboard on top of the honeycomb bed. I don’t have any 2mm blanks available to test your exact configuration unfortunately.

@@CubicleNinja Top will first order 4mm plates and then start working with your settings. It may take a while because I don't have a permanent setup for my laser. Do let us know the result. Thank you

Thank you for the kind words!

I set my 2mm focus from the top of the acrylic. My laser has such a short focal length, if I had focused on the backing board it would scrape the acrylic. Since my image wasn’t very detailed it worked out ok.

That's a very interesting question and I don't have an answer. I have some more blanks on order right now and will use one to try an image I've already done before so I can frost the back after it completes and compare the two.

Correct, but even if a user has a similar 5w diode laser, the settings won't be exactly the same which is why I always state that they need to perform their own material test calibration before doing work on any new material.

​@@CubicleNinja Still the most important info to share is the real out put power, of course they need to work with their own setting al laser power out put, nut I've you state the real put wattage, we have a most realistic idea of how to set up the machine.

Fair point. I included the laser wattage in my video on the acrylic and I've adjusted the description of my other videos to now include that the Atomstack A5 M50 Pro is a 5W laser

@@CubicleNinja Hello, congratulations for your video. I have an Atomstack s10 Pro with a 10W laser, are the settings the same?

Unfortunately, I'm not sure, I've never used any other lasers. I'd imagine you'd be able to go with a higher speed, though, or a slightly lower power setting since you have a 10W vs the 5W I used. I don't know how the dual lasers work differently though to balance out the power and speed.

I did the focus from the top of the acrylic (I placed the 2mm spacer on top of the sheet and set the laser at that level). For all of the ones I have done so far, they've had thicker lines (like in the one in this video). The thick lines allow a lot more flexibility in the focus point for the laser since I'm not trying to get any fine detail. With the A5 M50 Pro I have, I wouldn't be able to do a direct focus on the poster board since the acrylic is 4mm thick and the focal point of the laser is only 2mm. If I ever do an etching with a lot of detail in it, I'd reduce the focal point as close as I could to the acrylic without scratching across as it moves.

@@CubicleNinja Thanks for the reply! That's what I was wondering about too - to focus on the bottom side you'd have to lower the laser to the point where it would hit the acrylic. Or, at least on my Ortur, I suppose I could remove the magnetic guard piece from the bottom to make more clearance.

It depends on how I'm going to be using them. For some of them, I use them as art that will be hung somewhere and I will either paint / stain the layers different shades of a color and then seal them for durability. I also like to use these to make customizable nightlights (going to be doing a video of that soon) and, for those, depending on the end result I'll either leave it completely natural or paint them to match the color of the nightlight box. I edited the video description and added a link to a zip file containing all of the profile files I used in the video. Good luck!

ROFL

I didn't mess up my tree, it's just a happy little accident

I’m not sure about better but it looks to be a bit more powerful for both input and output wattage. You’ll most likely need to reduce the speed (and maybe increase the power a bit) to get the proper effect on the clear acrylic. Unfortunately, since this is my first laser, I have nothing to compare it to. The best bet would be to run the small square material fill test with a power range from 10% - 50% and the speed range from 1000mm/min to 3000 mm/min and see which combination on the test sheet gives you a good white etching without any pops or burns.

@Jonathan Flanigan yeah I'll have to do some test runs. I had to do the background at 4000/30 and did the front letters at 4000/75. I haven't sealed it yet. So maybe it'll come out fine. I was just curious if you knew. Also I feel like my laser is dying anyway haha.

It’s definitely wild how much a small tweak to the power and speed can change the final output on some of these materials. I haven’t had a chance to do a test on a coaster after sealing it first like some others have recommended. I’d love to hear what settings end up working out for you when you get it tuned in. One thing I did when I was doing all my material tests was to remove the feet from the coasters and run the tests on the backside. That let me not waste multiple coasters when I was getting everything figured out with my laser (they aren’t super expensive, but it adds up fast!)

@Jonathan Flanigan yeah I didn't have any "extra" slate laying around (like I should lol) but I did 4000/30 for the background and 80 for the front letters. After sealing it (while it's wet) it looks good. But I thought the back ground showed up too much. So I tried it at 4000/25 and after sealing it. I can barely see it. I did do 2 wine glasses cheering like yours. But I think my front letters are the issue. I have a fancy cursive L right on where the glasses are so for the L to really stand out more than the glasses. It probably has to be a perfect ratio of spd and power.

@@kylecastano5895 Ahh, that definitely makes sense. With the slate (and a little bit with the cork coasters), the font style and weight become extremely important. On the slate coasters, using purely lightburn, I've found that selecting the text and using the Tools -> Offset Shape with an offset distance of 0.55 - 0.95 with an outward direction and setting it to delete the original objects thickens up the font enough to help make it "pop." The reason for the range in the offset distance there is because different script fonts look better with different offsets to allow it to keep the fancy script feel to it while still giving it the extra weight during the engraving.

I'm not familiar with that laser, but it looks to be a 10W output (the one I use in the video is ~5.5W output). When you do the material test, I'd recommend starting at a max power of 10% and a speed of 3000 mm/min (50 mm/s). I did find a video from Atomstack for the X7 pro (which looks to use the same 10W diode as the S10 pro) and they used 35% max power and 3000 mm/m in the example they did. For me, anything above 15% started popping (making the bubbles / holes) with this method.

​@@CubicleNinjaI have the same laser that you mention the X7 pro and it is impossible to climb 7% starts to crackle and black bubbles come out. I have been testing and managed to make a slight engraving that is barely noticeable but it is costing me to give the result where I get to make a good engraving.

That’s very frustrating, I’m sorry it’s not working on the x7 pro. It looks like the x7 pro is a dual diode laser and supports a speed up to 11,000 mm/min (MUCH higher than mine). You could try doubling up the speed and keeping the power around the same - something like 6,000 mm/min at 10% power? I’m not seeing a lot of good video results for that laser or the s10 with clear acrylic. Most of the videos focus on the clean cutting lines on the thicker materials it gives. If you haven’t done the material tester, I’d suggest giving that a go with the same setup. Have the laser vary from 5% to 20% and the speed from 2500 mm/min up to 7,500 mm/min. Make sure the layers are set to fill to give the solid squares so you’ll get a good idea on the popping/burning and the final result clarity. I really wish I could be more help, but I’m still extremely new at this.

The a5 m50 pro I use is 40w (5.5w output)

With the posterboard backing, I just run it under tap water for about a minute and gently rub it with my fingers or a lint free cloth. This method, luckily, doesn’t require a lot of cleanup. (Sorry for the delayed response, I didn’t get a notification about your comment for some reason)

I haven’t tried that yet. All of the clear acrylics I have done so far have been from an imported PNG and not using the trace image option or an SVG, so I have only been testing the different image modes rather than the line/fill modes. I definitely want to look into that, though, to speed things up some.

I tried offset fill on some text out line and instant failure popping and burning at tested setting turn off offset fill and it works fine at same setting. I’m searching and searching for information but nothing as of yet

@@jamesmyatt8132 I got in some more blanks and am planning to try some different configurations to see what I can find that works. If I have any luck with the offset fill on this laser, I'll give an update with the settings I end up using.

@@CubicleNinja i had some luck yesterday with it just doing offset inward to essinsially make a filled box and it came out nice. the offset fill etches in a different pattetern than fill and it can be seen on led lite acrylic. my issues was not offset fill it was something else. offset fill does make more heat in a certain area and that should be taken into consideration.

@@jamesmyatt8132 very good information, thank you for the update!

Correct regarding the black posterboard. I went with the heavy duty posterboard because it was very smooth and heavy (for posterboard anyway), so I didn't have to worry about inconsistencies in the surface or having it move around with the air from the exhaust. If the acrylic doesn't sit flush and even across the posterboard, then you'll get some different intensity of the etching which will cause areas to seem faded out rather than a flat white look to your design. Yep, the laser burns through onto the posterboard, if you check at the 8:00 minute mark in the video ( th-cam.com/video/Ri9YFIinFbw/w-d-xo.html ) you'll see where the laser burned through the black, top layer of the posterboard and down into the middle white layer.

Thanks for the answer; just one more question: My laser is the xTOOL D1 Pro 10W, so what power and speed do you think I should use to engrave 2 or 4mm acrylic? Thanks again

I'm not really sure, this is my first laser and I'm still working to figure things out on it, never used an xTool before. The best thing I could recommend is do a material test in lightburn on an acrylic sheet (with the same backing posterboard and anything else). I'd have it use a range of speed from 2,000 - 5,000 mm/m with power ranging from 5% up to 50% and see which gives you the best result without any burns or pops.

​@DanCopy I just tested this method today. Worked perfect, took me a few tries to get the correct setting with no bubbles or cracks. I have Xtool D1 Pro 20W and I used 165mm/s and 35% power, it may help you dial in your settings with the 10W. Thanks ​@Jonathan Flanigan for this method, easier than tempera or galvanized paint with much better results.

@@NosdregGamer Thanks. I will definitely try this method. With a 10W Laser, do you think I should keep the 165mm/s and 60% power?

Ich spreche kein Deutsch, also benutze ich eine Übersetzerseite, es tut mir leid, wenn das falsch ist. Welches Problem hatten Sie mit den Ergebnissen? Haben Sie zuerst einen Test durchgeführt, um Ihre Leistungs- und Geschwindigkeitseinstellungen zu ermitteln? Haben Sie außerdem darauf geachtet, den Versatz für den Laser auf 2 mm einzustellen?

Thank you for that suggestion. I initially thought I was going to prefer the unfinished look to the slate coasters, with the gray instead of black shading. After using them for a day, though, I realized the unfinished was probably not going to be the best for long-term use. This upcoming weekend I'm going to go through my material test after applying the sealant first to see how that impacts the speed/power requirements on my laser to get a similar result.

@@CubicleNinja im going to be trying a beeswax finish after the engraving on my next tests, will be trying out some color fill also got delivery of mica powders this morning, being irish and paddys day coming cant resist trying it out

I saw a couple videos where people did the color fill, it looks really nice. I am definitely looking forward to trying that out.

@@CubicleNinja its the beauty of laserology the possibilities are endless and with the way tech is evolving it can only get better, keep on lasering

I'm very glad to hear it was helpful!. The image mode definitely comes down partially to personal preference and also to the type of image you are going to be putting on the acrylic (same applies to black slate). I intend to go back through and do tests using the different options and also using image-r first and then setting the mode to passthrough. Perfect timing with valentine's day as well :)

Sure, the exact piece I'm using is this sheet from Michael's for 99 cents - www.michaels.com/product/22-x-28-poster-board-by-creatology-10525550 - any thick / multi-layer black poster board should work, the main thing is to make sure there aren't a lot of particles or discolorations in it so it is an even black layer under the acrylic to have a consistent end result. It's a large sheet, so you can just use scissors to cut off the rectangles to fit around the acrylic blanks.

I purchased this pack of 4 from amazon - www.amazon.com/dp/B08NXTLD6J . They are the "blanks" that are made for the most common bases. There are most likely much better deals out there, but since I'm just getting started, this small pack worked well for me to test things out. I did my material test on just a standard piece of 4mm clear acrylic that I picked up at a home improvement store around the corner from where I live, that way I could use the blanks on real signs.

@@CubicleNinja I am new for laser printing which I bought the x7 pro a couple of months ago and I am interested also engraving on Acrylic. I appreciate for your information. I will try using your settings. Thanks.