Laser Cutting Acrylic

Overview

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Acrylic is a type of plastic that can be easily cut and formed to be used in many applications.

Safety

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ALWAYS keep a close eye on the machine when cutting acrylic due to its flammability.

Two Main Types of Acrylic Sheet

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Extruded Acrylic

Created by extruding molten acrylic pellets through a machine.

• Pros
  • Cheaper
  • Better tolerances
  • Easier to bend and form
  • Easier to flame polish edge
• Cons
  • Easy to crack
  • Engraving produces grey frost
  • Lower optical clarity when compared to cast (still very high)
  • Less scratch resistant

Cast Acrylic

Created by pouring molten acrylic pellets into a mold.

• Pros
  • Produces better results when engraving (white frost)
  • Comes in many colors
  • Machines better
  • Higher optical clarity
  • More scratch resistant
• Cons
  • Expensive (your kid might not be going to college)

Cutting/Engraving

• Table for common settings

SUBSTRATE	250 DPI RASTER ENGRAVING SPEED/POWER	400 DPI RASTER ENGRAVING SPEED/POWER	500 DPI RASTER ENGRAVING SPEED/POWER	VECTOR CUTTING SPEED/POWER/FREQUENCY
Acrylic	100/100	100/80	100/60	⅛ (3 mm) – 15/100/5000
				¼ (6.4 mm) – 5/100/5000
				(multiple passes may allow cutting of thicker materials)

Tips

• If engraving, try to use cast acrylic as it will produce better results
• When vector cutting, use masking tape on the backside of the piece to protect against flair up scorch marks as the laser hits the cutting grid

Pikes Peak Makerspace (PPM) is dedicated to supporting our maker community in their creative processes by providing shared space, shared tools, materials, software and a knowledge base to turn their ideas into reality.