Etching Clear Acrylic With A Diode Laser 

Correct.

Just water. The scratches came from 2 things. Using paper towels which is a no-no. And #2 Stacking them on top of each other. Another no-no.

Hope it helps you out!

I buy sets that come with the acrylic and base. The thin ones I use in the videos are a cheap substitute that I use just for testing.

The scratches came from a combination of cleaning with the wrong material (need a soft cotton cloth) and from stacking them on top of each other. They scratch EASY. As far as the ratio, just enough soap to make it viscous.

I use a normal white A4 paper 180gsm and after done you can use any glass cleaning product that is used at home for windows.

@@LaserNoob FYI, the scratches can be polished out of the Acrylic using a NON-Abrasive auto polish

Any dish soap like dawn should work. I start the etch as soon as it is coated, while it is still wet.

Poster board is the only thing I have tried to be honest. It is not heavy duty by any means. I find the cheapest stuff I can get and that's what I use. Is Amazon available in your country?

Check out my Acrylic Part Deux video. I use tempera paint and compare. Tempera paint gives the best result, but has a longer prep time due to drying time.

I don't have a co2 laser, so I can't really recommend one. If you have facebook, check out the Laser Masterclass group. The folks there should be able to provide you with some good feedback.

Each one took about 20 minutes to etch. As far as the type of acrylic, there in no info listed as to what it is. You can find them here - amzn.to/3Eu7k1C

Cast acrylic works the best for engraving.

Dish soap and water is the mixture. I am working on another way of etching acrylic. If the results are good, I'll do another video.

@@LaserNoob Thx a lot :)

@@LaserNoob waiting for that too. Can you test to cut the transparent acrylic also?

@@nomanmalik4816 sadly, clear acrylic can not be cut with a diode laser.

I am uploading a new video today with some different options for those people who can not get the Enduramark spray.

Take the protective film off. And yes, I have done a photo!

How do you do a photo?

I processed the image in imag-r and used tempera paint. I cover tempera process in my 2nd acrylic video.

Speed and power are both mentioned in the video, for each test.

I had just gotten into lasers when I did this video. I was not cleaning them properly and stacking them on top of one another. They scratch very easily. Now I clean them with soft cotton cloths and cover them with masking tape to protect them.

It's possible that it is not cast. What power laser do you have? What speed and power are you testing with and what medium are you using?

@LaserNoob comgrow z1 10 w and i used black acrylic paint, and speed and power i did a whole test ranging from 6000 to 2000 speed and power from 100 to 45

I've never used acrylic paint. That could be the issue. Also my best results came at around 20-30% power.

alright I'll give that a try with some other mediums and see how that goes, thanks. And i like the shirt 👍

Tempera paint works well. That's what I typically use.

I had not done that at the time I recorded this video.

Depends on the chemical composition of the coating I suppose. I'm not sure if the fumes would be toxic or corrosive.

I have not.

Contact paper? I have not tried that. But I have some other tests to do and I'll add that to the list!

Everything including the tempera were placed face down against the black poster board.

Good suggestion. I did try that. It "pops" the acrylic and leaves dots.

@@LaserNoob good to know ... thanks

@@LaserNoob The dish soap (which can be applied pure, and must probably remain wet) act as fire retardant (so they say) and allows to avoid this problem (but you have to adjust the laser power & speed to be sure).

Unfortunately, diode lasers can not cut clear acrylic and some colored acrylic, no matter what coating you apply.

Unfortunately, cutting clear acrylic is not possible with a diode laser.

Yes! I always leave the protective film on the uncoated side until I'm ready to etch it. Then clean it with a very soft cotton cloth. Even paper towels will scratch acrylic. After your done etching, I suggest putting them in a soft protective sleeve. Personally, I use transfer tape. But I have a ton of that on hand for when I work with vinyl.

The plastic is a protective cover. The white was Enduramark Charcoal Glass spray.

Lightburn settings say mm/s are best for co2, but not sure why. Even xtools website gives burn speeds in mm/s on their materials page. Mm/m is just mm/s x 60. I have not tried black paint so I can't comment on that.

I think you might be talking about tempura paint. I will try that method soon, and post the results.

The answer is ALWAYS to try both ways and learn from whichever one was a “failure”. You’ll spend more time thinking about it than simply doing it would take. That said, I just did something similar, but it was on wood, and I engraved directly onto/through the black spray paint that I covered the board with. It smelled a little, but not too bad. The laser pretty much completely burned the paint away, along with a little bit of the surface of the wood, leaving just wood underneath. I think it would work similar to acrylic. The paint just serves to be something for the laser to hit instead of passing through. When it hits the paint, or marker or whatever, it causes the heat/fire to occur on the material, which leaves a mark.

@@michaelkeymont501I did a flag display for my brother-in-laws flag when he passed. I covered the area to laser with painters tape. Came out perfect and wood was walnut. Did 4 passes to make sure it was deep enough.

I don't really use GRBL, but I did take a look at it. Mine has the 3 zeros after the decimal as well. But I also have decimal spaces in Lightburn as too. The videos you were watching may just have their GRBL set up different. I don't believe it will cause you any issues. If it does, please let me know and I'll investigate the issue further.

@@LaserNoob cheers for your reply , i will look into it further tomorrow and mess with some settings , i did see a video with someone using laser grbl on an ortur laser on their quality settings they also had 7.000 and it came out perfect , i'm still getting used to this , sorry if i keep bothering you , have a good un cheers.

Black poster board.

Here you go. amzn.to/46CICHD

No, but I will in the next acrylic video when I do tempera paint as well.

I use painters tape when I burn on wood. Always have great results. Even with small wording. No burn over

Sadly, no. A Diode laser can not cut clear acrylic. You'd need a co2 laser to achieve that. Sorry.

ok thank you .@@LaserNoob

No matter the coating, clear acrylic can not be cut with a diode laser. Sorry! You will need a co2 laser for that.

No sé. Intentaré.

I have only used the XTool D1 5 & 10 watt. I bought the 5 w rig about 3 months ago and got the 10 w module a month later so I could do white frosted glass. I was a complete noob and it was relatively easy to get going.

@@LaserNoob I want to do clear acrylic and simple stuff like that. This is enough eh?

Once I figured out how, I have had no issues doing clear acrylic with my D1 10W.

Yes, with inconsistent results. Now I use tempera paint as I show in my second acrylic video.

@@LaserNoob That's what I thought.

You can get it on amazon at amzn.to/3UVFWj2 or from Enduramark.com. Warning: It's NOT cheap.

I'm doing another acrylic video soon. I'm testing another couple of methods. One looks just as good as Enduramark and is much cheaper.

I'll look into that. Where do you get that paint from? I've never heard of it.

From rubbing against each other. They are extremely susceptible to scratching.

This particular design was about 20 minutes to etch.

@@LaserNoob hi you said this took you 20 minutes, well I followed your steps and no way does it take 20 minutes. at a speed of 40. definitely no way after an hour of etching I cancelled the job and decided engraving on acrylic is to time consuming. i didn't even get to half way in the spiderman text. i did a canvas the other day at a speed of 2000 and power 15 and the took 7 hours. this acrylic I was doing would have at least took 14 hours plus. unless you showing an unedited video that the design you did was 20 minutes and then I apologise for doubting you. and I am using an xtool d1 10w pro and just because of the slow time for doing acrylic I went straight online to buy and research a co2 laser. 20 minutes, hmmm. that remains to be seen.

@@paulb6181 then your settings are wrong.

@@paulb6181 I put in a small 58x53 mm file at 40/40. Preview shows 2 hours. No way it took 20 minutes. And this is line. If I jump to fill it's almost 4 hours

Your settings are wrong.

A dry-erase marker? No, I have not yet. At this point, I only concentrate on what is giving me the brightest look. And that is tempera paint.

Not with a diode laser, unfortunately.

The settings are stated towards the end of the video.

Whatever floats your boat. I'm not here to say whats better or not.

If you watch the entire video, you will see that I did.

@@LaserNoob my mistake I wrote too soon

Sadly, you can not cut clear acrylic with a diode laser.

Those are the speeds and power I ran each test. Speed and power will vary slightly as no 2 lasers are the same. Your 10w might have slightly more or less power than mine, or vice-versa.

@@LaserNoob i was confused about mm per second and per minute my bad. Thanks for the response though. Thumbs up.

Cutting clear acrylic with a diode laser is not possible.

Peter, ich mache demnächst ein Acrylvideo mit meinem A5 M50. Peter, I'm doing an acrylic video with my A5 M50 soon.

@@LaserNoob ..hallo danke für deine schnelle antwort... freue mich schon sehr auf dein acryl video mit den A5 M50... das wird mir bestimmt weiterhelfen...

The settings are stated in the video.

I cut some black acrylic with a 5w atomstack a while back doing some tests for a video. But I have not cut any outside of that.

👍🏻

Backer as in protective film?

@@user-fj5ul9ci7d No, he's referring to the poster board I use for backing.

Thanks for the advice. That was my first video. Improvements have been made 😉

I make them. This one is my favorite. Lol

They are just Sharpie brand markers. But, hang on! I'm doing an acrylic showdown for my next video this weekend, so don't buy a bunch of sharpies just yet!!

@@LaserNoob ok brother !!! Thanks for posting!!! I’ll be watching !!

That's my favorite!

That was from having them stacked on top of each other and being wiped off with paper towels. Nothing to do with the actual lasering.

Yes I figured that, I hope tp find a way to wipe em off withput ruining the finished result, maybe that would be a topic for a new video?!. I'm getting my own laser to day and thats defently something i want to try out.@@LaserNoob

Lightly wipe with water and a microfiber rag. Clean hands will keep smudges and fingerprints to a minimum

Thanks!

Thanks for the sub!

Thanks for the sub!

Thanks! 😃 While it was my 1st video and horribly edited, I appreciate the like!

Read the video description

@@LaserNoob I hope I didn't offend you. I was only using Constructive Criticism. The videos are very helpful and thats why I'm subscribed to your channel. Please keep them coming, especially the 20 watt vids. Also, MOST OF ALL, Love the shirt! My front Liscense Plate on my Expedition is Lets Go Brandon! Keep um coming my friend!

Not offended at all. I know the editing sucked on this video. Sadly, it is also my most popular, which keeps me from pulling it down and remaking it.

That's my absolute favorite design that I made. Thanks!

Hmm... Sorry, those keys are missing on my keyboard.

@@LaserNoob lol! Love it!

👋

Instead of complaining about the shirt, why don't you start your own country and have Biden, Fetterman, and Rachael Levine run it. Report back and let us know how that goes!

Don't be sad! I sell them and you can get one too!!

Exactly why I served in the military - so you can have (and KEEP) the RIGHT to disagree !!! I for one LOVE his shirt !!!

@@jacknick429 I guess it's all about where you draw the line. If the shirt explicitly endorsed Hitler or contained explicit hate speech, would the be OK with you as well. Anyway, I don't want to see our country go down the golden toilet. And that's exactly where Trump and his MAGA MORONS will take us if they get the chance. So for me the shirt is not OK, though it's not illegal. Keep in mind is the crazies like Desantis and Abbott who want to limit free speech.

@@steveh8724 A little “triggered” are ya now ???

@@steveh8724 Aaaaaand those of us that support freedom consider the left and the DEMONCRATS - the “crazzies”… so there’s THAT…..🤔

I appreciate your opinion. Thank you.

Awesome! Thanks!

308 now I guess … I just subbed to him! Let’s go !!!! Nice shirt bro !!! I’m not a fan of having some senile old man leading us straight into WWIII, but hey, to each their own I guess. Hope you aren’t draft age Mr. Pickle 😮