Hello onefinity family,
I’m trying to engrave 1/8 acrylic sheet but for some reason nothing happens. As a matter of fact the laser even engraved the sacrificial wood below but the plastic is uncratched. Any ideas of power, distance of the laser and settings? I’m looking around jtech but I haven’t found any blog postings or clues how to do this.
I am not for sure because I have never tried to do this but I would think you are going to need to paint/color the plastic so it will not be clear. I read somewhere people would engrave on glass/clear plastic by coloring it with a sharpie, fingernail polish, or something else. I’m sure others will have a better answer but I’m pretty sure it is going to have to not be clear to be engraved on with a diode laser.
Cannot engrave on a “Clear” material… Put blue tape on the top of the acrylic will work fine!
Tony and Roger,
Thank you for your help. I’m guessing that to cut it it’s the same process. I need to paint the top, or blue tape the top of it so the heat can actually reflect.
Is Tinted acrylic different? Like the nice jtech spacer that comes with the laser it’s engraved. Did they paint it first or they just engraved directly.
Thank again
I don’t have the laser add-on, but you can also try slightly defocusing the laser. I don’t know if that would allow it to engrave without taping, but it might be worth a shot.
Thank you Adam! This video was really informative
I am interested if anyone figured out what worked with the JTech laser. I just received mine yesterday and was going to try it out on some acrylic.
A diode laser will go right through a clear object. You need to color it or go with a co2 laser. Clear plastic absorbs co2 laser. This is why the co2 lasers can have clear covers vs tinted for viewing.
