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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Have you ever tried to engrave clear acrylic with your diode laser with no luck? Well I've run a few tests and have managed to get a pretty good result within the first attempt.
Here I show the process the I used to allow my diode laser to actually engrave/ etch clear acrylic. It was fairly simple and the results are amazing.
So, watch the whole video and try it yourself. You will be amazed by the results. I Promise!
You may want to see how even this does with edge lighting the acrylic. Even fine scratches are likely to scatter light, making the etch more visible, even without fillers.
Just lay your acrylic on a black background paper or poster board and it works quite well for the LED lighted engravings but not so much for stand alone engravings. I am however early in my experimenting and am trying several types of acrylic. I still want to try using something to color the engraving after the fact so see if that enhances or makes it worse.
I did try something similar and the laser just burnt the black part and melted parts of the acrylic so it wasn’t as clear as it should have been.
I’ve found you can colour engraved acrylic with some thick paints or rub n buff I’d really good too 👍🏻
ive seen some where they put a metal sheet under and dont paint the acrylic and comes out, maybe worth doing a side by side to see which works better?
That’s a great idea! Since the wood kind of already did it, metal should work quite well 👌🏻👌🏻
@@MARCAM yea and no burn marks from the metal, they did paint it with grey paint to make a bit darker
I'm definitely going to try this later. Thank you :)
You can get 5000 degree heat black paint. I used it on a metal plate and never looked back.
Is that a Swansea accent I’m hearing 😊? I lived in Killay for years before moving to London for college then on to California where I now live. Loved your video. Just got a 20w diode laser and I want to engrave clear acrylic so finding your channel was super helpful!
Not far off. I’m about 50 miles east of Swansea.
Sounds like you made a good decision l there. I bet the weather is much better 😉
And thank you, I’m glad the channel helps :)
Hope you get to grips with it all and have fun with your laser 👍🏻
I engrave marble with my a70..it kinda melt the marble and the material move upward...it was pretty clean cut....if you want i can show you a photo
Definitely would love to see a photo. That’s one thing I’ve not tried yet
Have you tried engraving the non painted side while the black side lies on the bed? Thanks
I did try but the results didn’t really work well for me. Not sure if I missed something but I just found doing it directly on top worked best for me :)
@@MARCAM Thanks
Wouldn't you do paint side down?
Someone else did suggest that and I did try it. But it didn’t work for me. I have some “new” type of paint I’ll be testing soon so maybe that’ll yield a better result 👍🏻
Im painting it with white acrylic paint and it much more visible, and try slowing laser down.
Does white paint work with a diode? I’ll have to give that a go for sure 👍🏻
Hi, I have an atomstack s20 max.
The power of the laser is 18-20w.
They cannot cut white plexiglass (acryl) 3 mm at all.
Is the problem that the laser power is low, or did I not set good parameters for cutting? I use the lightburn program
As far as I know, diode lasers just can’t cut white acrylic at all, regardless if settings as it just reflects the laser’s wavelength.
They can cut darker acrylics such as black but for clear and white you will need a co2 laser.
@@MARCAM THANK YOU
Would this work the same with cardstock? Im hoping to cut through it.
I don’t think using something like paint would help cutting I’m afraid. Does a diode not cut through card stock? I don’t think I’ve ever tried that myself.
im having trouble 😅
im burning and making the acrylic pop
i tried so many different thickness, power, and speed but i cant seem to get it right
its either hard to see or a I burn the acrylic
What power laser are you using? And what paint are you applying before hand?
Don't use achohol to remove the rub n buff, just a dry towel before it drys
Don't use acrylic as you have to remove it with alcohol or acetone, both of which can damage the acrylic.
I’ve noticed acetone isn’t good with acrylic. Never had problems with ipa mind
why dont put paper tape on acrilic?
Thats what I was thinking leave the paper on the back and cut through...?
Try multipass?
The layer of paint gets removed from one so you would have to apply another layer before running another pass I believe. Worth trying though for sure 👍🏻
Makes sense @@MARCAM
Ooh, I wonder what would happen if we painted both sides of the acrylic?
I’m not actually sure. If you give it a go, let us know the results 👍🏻
@@MARCAM It works pretty well! I used a water based acrylic and engraved while it was still slightly damp. Bit messy on my work table, but was really easy to clean off the acrylic with no risk of scratching. Just wiped it with a microfbre cloth.
Good to hear. Did the laser etch just the top side or both sides?
@@MARCAM Just the top, but I got a better etch I think, clearer and with less bluring and slightly deeper penetration.
@nossica149 good news then!
I’m still yet to try it but it’s on my list of things to do
What is your laser machine? and what did you use power for that?
Laser is the Ortur master 2. Powers and speeds are mentioned in the video 👍🏻
@@MARCAM There are 3 versions of the LM2 (1.5, 5 and 10 W) he does not mention which he has.
@toshy584 ah really? My bad. It’s the 5.5w diode. But, will work with all other sizes. Will just need to adjust speeds and powers to suit 👍🏻
I used cardboard an that worked as well. Without using paint.
Can you elaborate on this a bit? Be interesting to know the method on that 👍🏻
@MARCAM sure. I'm new to this so it may of done what yours did in your video where the paint or coating melted into it? However it did come out clean after washing it with windex and water. All I did was lay it down on cardboard an set my power at 70. Speed was a 100 which may of been to slow? But the image was on the acrylic. An lit up very well with led. Maybe use something a bit tougher than cardboard though. Wants to burn lol. But it worked.
Any color?
@@L7pushman I've only tried clear at the moment.
@@Overdriventv does matter what color cardboard. Like black or brown cardboard?
Power and speed??
Should be mentioned in the video
very well done experiment, but the imposibility to engrave transparent acrilyc its about light physics, if u cover the surface whit a black paint, u only can engrave the paint coat, and the result on the transparent acrilic its just a secondary effecto of the heat, but, since the rest of the acrilic thickness still remains transparent, the beam still past trough whit no interaction whit the material, ergo no real engraving or cuting capacity, im sorry my english its poor, best regards from Argentina!
Yeah you’re 100% spot on there. I should of called the video ‘etching acrylic’ but I wasn’t sure people would understand what that was.
Your English is spot on too 😊👍🏻
how thick is your acrylic?
Piece I used here was 10mm. But any thickness should have the same results 👍🏻
Use a white board marker
Does that really work? I’m sure I have one laying about. I’ll give it a go 👍🏻
ummm 101.... raise it off the bed..... mirror the image and engrave on the back side.
😂 thanks Jer, I’ll remember that for next time 👍🏻
Use a whiteboard marker pen
I’ve been meaning to try this 👍🏻
c o o l