Tips On acquiring, Cutting and Engraving Acrylic

I have ordered a G Weike laser (LC1612 w/ 2 lasers 1 = 150w, 1 = 60w)... it is on the boat and should be arriving soon.

I have no experience at all with laser cutting. (I do have CNC plasma).

In anticipation of receiving my laser, I am thinking of what I will want to cut and engrave.

I have two areas of main interest at present... Acrylic (cut and engrave) ... and Granite (engrave).

My Brother in Law has a granite shop, and lot's of scrap granite... so I will have plenty of test material for that.

I would like some advice on Acrylic... What is the best place to order online for acrylic (lowest price?)?

Are there any special considerations that I should consider when ordering Acrylic for cutting or engraving (aside from dimensions of course)... example: are there different types... if so what are advantages of one over the other?

I am also very interested to hear what others are cutting / engraving

First of all congratulations on your new machine. The power selections are quite accurate for cutting and engraving on acrylic and the worktable size is good too. (Maybe the working area could have been a little larger. My lasers have the same powers as yours.) I'm not familiar with ordering acrylic online since it's not a common practice for such material in Turkey. My advice is to request a sample of the product you are going to buy. Cut it on the laser and see the result yourself. Don't buy in large quantities thinking you've got a bargain unless you made sure it suits your needs.

Rule number one: Buy cast acrylic, it's definitely better than extruded acrylic. For cutting it won't matter that much, but for engraving you definitely want cast acrylic. Don't forget that extruded acrylic becomes much more brittle after laser cutting and it's problematic to glue. Off course there's a way to mend it, but it's too time consuming.

I have to quote Rodne Gold from Sawmillcreek here:

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There is a way of stopping the cracking , and that is to anneal the pex. Leave the cut parts in an oven at about 80c for 1 hr per mm thickness and let them air cool , this stress releives them.
Alternatively , use only cast acrylic with tensol glues. If you use extruded , use glues specific to extruded (Degussa makes many)
One can debur and scrape edges too , which does somewhat releive the problem.
How to tell whether its extruded or cast:
Burn a piece , extruded burns silently and will drip molten balls , cast burns with a crackly/smokey flame and wont drip.

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And don't forget that the web is a limitless source for the answers to all your questions:

Cast Acrylic Sheet, Extruded Acrylic Sheet FAQ

Since you are in the US, your options considering material choice are almost limitless. There are acrylic sheets from every country and brand. Sure-fire brands like Degussa/Röhm/Evonik won't disappoint you, but their price is considerably higher than others. So try to experiment with as much different brands as you can. I can't really say that material from a certain country is the best. Even the German brand Evonik has a factory in Romania and is producing top quality material. On the other side, I had Thai acrylic which is quite good and I'm using an Indonesian brand at the moment. Actually I have to use the brands which the wholesaler is importing. I don't have that much of a choice. A vital point to always remember is that not all colors and thicknesses will be available at all times. You may find clear acrylic at every thickness you want, but when it comes to colors, you might have to order them specially. Off course it might be different in the US.

As to what I am cutting: Acrylic has a very wide variety of use: almost everything is possible. Regarding to engraving: You will probably engrave mostly Photos. With acrylic it might a bit hard to find the right settings and the preparing&editing of the photos is important too. I'm assuming that you might want to engrave vector graphics and photos on to granite. (Headstones mostly) However I'm not sure if your 60W laser will be strong enough to do that. You might want to use the 150W laser for engraving on granite. I never did it,though, I'm just staying.

Hi there
My experience for engraving acrylic with my 40w CO2 laser is to use cast acrylic and a power setting around 10mA speed 150 to 200mm/s. for cutting I always do two runs with a setting of 15mA and around 5 to 10mm/s
for granite: try to avoind granit with big flake structure like " blue pearl or so" otheres with fine dots and veins are ok. the most importand settings are to use a low power setting around 5 to 8ma and a higher speed around 100 to 150 mm/s isometimes even go up in speed to 250mm/s.
the best effect is just to mark the surface do not go deep because it will loose to much surraunding areas and a picture never will be clear.
greetings
walt

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Originally Posted by herrmc

I have ordered a G Weike laser (LC1612 w/ 2 lasers 1 = 150w, 1 = 60w)... it is on the boat and should be arriving soon.

I have no experience at all with laser cutting. (I do have CNC plasma).

In anticipation of receiving my laser, I am thinking of what I will want to cut and engrave.

I have two areas of main interest at present... Acrylic (cut and engrave) ... and Granite (engrave).

My Brother in Law has a granite shop, and lot's of scrap granite... so I will have plenty of test material for that.

I would like some advice on Acrylic... What is the best place to order online for acrylic (lowest price?)?

Are there any special considerations that I should consider when ordering Acrylic for cutting or engraving (aside from dimensions of course)... example: are there different types... if so what are advantages of one over the other?

I am also very interested to hear what others are cutting / engraving

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Hi Friend,
Thank you for choosing G.WEIKE first .
and for engraving ,maybe 60w is much better than the 150w,the laser tube already with this characters ,also settings in laser machine .

Besides Acrylic,Granite,maybe leather,cartonbox,paper,wood ,garment,etc most nonmetal materials are suitable

hope you have a wonderful experience with our machine

Best Regards
Lucy Lee
G.WEIKE Laser
[email protected]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herrmc

I have ordered a G Weike laser (LC1612 w/ 2 lasers 1 = 150w, 1 = 60w)... it is on the boat and should be arriving soon.
I have no experience at all with laser cutting. (I do have CNC plasma).

In anticipation of receiving my laser, I am thinking of what I will want to cut and engrave.

I have two areas of main interest at present... Acrylic (cut and engrave) ... and Granite (engrave).

My Brother in Law has a granite shop, and lot's of scrap granite... so I will have plenty of test material for that.

I would like some advice on Acrylic... What is the best place to order online for acrylic (lowest price?)?

Are there any special considerations that I should consider when ordering Acrylic for cutting or engraving (aside from dimensions of course)... example: are there different types... if so what are advantages of one over the other?

I am also very interested to hear what others are cutting / engraving

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Hi, Curtis ,

You can have nearly all the nonmetal material to work.Common Acrylic should all OK. No matter transparent or colored.

Besides, your machine should arrive soon. Charlie whose machine is on the same board with yours has already received the arrival notice from FCC.

Best regards,
Melody
[email protected]