I'm learning how to use my laser and having a lot of fun doing it. Right now it seems to be a lot of trial and error with settings. Does anyone know of a good repository for material/speed settings? for example i've been searching all over on the best way to engrave (etch) Acrylic and have not been able to find much other than my 2.8w laser should be able to do it, but a Co2 would be much better. Thanks!
We are working on some ideas here but at the moment its still a wip and not sure when we will actually be able to get back to it. If your interested in helping with your laser, we could use some feedback to build up this data?
Acrylic needs heat to vaporize. With clear acrylic the light from a diode laser will pass right through and do little. The only way that I have found to etch clear acrylic is to paint the back black and etch the back (mirror the image). With the black paint enough heat is generated so it can vaporize the acrylic some. You will have a chance of etching "DARK COLOR" acrylic will not let the light pass through without painting. I have found that CO2 lasers, even low power ones do a much better job than diode laser to do acrylic. You will find the same thing with glass, the best way to etch glass is to paint it black. And of course you can clean the paint off after etching.
Thanks WildBill, I spoke with Jay at Jtech and got some suggestions on settings to use too, which has really helped. I've been playing around and having a lot of fun with my laser and learning how to use it. Mark, i'd be happy to help add some feedback and setting i've found so far to help build a materials database.
