Etching on Clear Acrylic - Atomstack A5 M50 Pro (5.5-watt Diode Laser)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2024
- This video will show my method of etching on clear acrylic with an Atomstack a5 m50 pro (5.5-watt) diode laser and Lightburn
I'm using a thick black poster board on top of a standard honeycomb bed under the 4mm acrylic blank. I really like the way the results turned out and it doesn't require any special prep with paint or other surface materials.
00:00 Start (Finished Product and Intro)
01:03 Setup Used
01:48 Weird Tweak I had to make in Lightburn
03:32 Project Setup
04:03 Layer Configuration (Speed, Power, Mode)
06:44 Etching/Engraving Process
07:44 After the Etching/Engraving Result
09:23 Small Clip of Finished Product - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
You Sr. are a genius.. excelent work!
Thank you for the kind words!
I used this method today and the engraving was better than using card board , but the Poster board was sticking to the acrylic and it wont come off, I am gonna try to use the soap method and apply a layer of soap to see if that solves the issue, another thing to mention is that my acrylics are 2mm not 4mm as in your video, but will do more testing til I hit the nail.
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.
Nice Work!
When you reveal your finished template around 8:30 i noticed its cloudy. is this due to one of the protective films being on one of the sides?
I forgot to mention in the video that I always remove both sides of protective film to make sure it doesn't melt and stick to the acrylic.
The cloudiness on the finished acrylic seems to be residue left from the smoke that comes up off the posterboard getting trapped in between the two materials. When you do the quick rinse at the end, that will remove the smoke residue as well as any bits of posterboard that might have come off onto the acrylic during the process.
Can you show the poster board, where you got it please? Thanks for a great video
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.
Nice Video. Thanks. Is there a place where you can buy the clear acrylic you used excluding the lamp base?
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.
Hi Jonathan, first of all, thanks for the video.
I found this method that you use interesting because some people use Tempera Paint, others use a steel plate.
But, the thick black cardboard that you use under the acrylic must be very rigid and flat, so there is no space left between it and the acrylic, right? That way the work is good?
Another thing: the power of the laser you use when it passes over the acrylic, does it burn the cardboard? Thanks
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?
Did you focus your laser on the top of plexiglass or the bottom where the cardboard is? Thanks
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.
Very nice video, i have been trying to get set up for this very project and trying to find some guide lines for a 36w has been an issue. It amazes me that the power is so low, 14% of a 5.5w is only .77, unless i'm lookin at this wrong?? My test pieces are to be in today so hopefully i can go ahead and tackle this.
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.
Hi Jonathan
I have an atomstack A5 with air unit
I use black drawing paper 120g (three sheets on top of each other)
my Clear Acrylic is 2mm and does not fit in the slot of the rgb foot. I planned to have an adapter 3d printed from 4 to 2mm slot so that the acrylic is stuck in it.
Now my problem.
I am using laser GRBL v 4.8.0 my settings are as follows:
Rezise: Smoot / line to line tracing / Quality 4,000 lines/min /
Laser options M4 Dynamic power
S min 0% / s max 25% / 300DPI
With 1 Pass I have almost nothing on the record. With 3 passes it is burned next to the lines and cracks in the plate.
I clean the plates with dish soap before I start and after engraving. I use GBRL because I find the lightburn too complicated (while most work with it)
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
Do you focus the laser to the level of the top of the acrylic or to the bottom where the poster board is?
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.
hello, I have an Atomstack S10 Pro, and I would like to know the settings to be able to record on acrylic without leaving bubbles inside the acrylic, all my acrylic walls leave bubbles inside.
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.
Have you tried an offset fill to cut down the engrave time? If so what problems did you run into?
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!
Hello, How do you clean acrylic after scraping?
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)
How would frosting the back look when lit??
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.
Poster board and mounting board is same item?
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.
What font is that? AIDEN inscription
It’s one of the Mandalore fonts from the Mandalorian show.
www.dafont.com/mandalore.font
@@CubicleNinja Thanks for your reply...
hallo ich habe den gleichen laser.. aber nach dein video..mit deine einstellung.. leider keine ergebnisse... schade..
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?