high all… I’m to cutting 1/8" thick mirrored acrylic. I’ve used PF medium acrylic setting and it cuts like a charm, but is burning the mirror backing a bit. I’ve tried a couple other settings and either burns or doesn’t cut all the way through.
Yeah a picture would be helpful but @sailbyc sounds about right. Masking will help, a sacrificial layer (cardstock, plywood, what have you)underneath will help even more – cut carries a slight fire risk. Stay away from corrugated as an underlayer, you’re asking for fire trouble.
You might also consider tweaking your settings, if you are getting lots of flashback, it’s likely overcutting. Speeding up , reducing power, or both might be in order.
Also, most have had good luck by putting the mirrored surface up, so you’re cutting into the back of the mirror.
Yeah that looks like flashback all right. Try masking and/or sacrificial layers. You’ll probably get some improvement. Nice little monogram project, it will look great when it’s done.
This might produce gasps of horror, but has anyone tried glass as a backing layer ?
Still got a couple of weeks to go before I can give Glowfinger a hug, but it doesn’t stop the brain bouncing off the wall !
It would be interesting to see if it reduces the flash back, or makes it infinitely worse.
John
I’ve considered it, but don’t have a piece of glass hanging around.
I have a nice big ceramic tile that I’ve been considering too… non-flammable laser absorbent substrates seem like a great backer, as long as it’s thin enough to not push you out of .5" total height.
The benefits of using something like cardstock include price, availability and so thin you can largely ignore them in height calculations. With glass, it’s reusability and presumably a more forgiving power-absorber. Needs some testing though, I await your full report
masking the mirrored side did it! turning the acrylic over and reflecting the object did not; however, I didn’t mask either side when I did it. thank you!!
Flipping it over only stops the burned look of the flashback. If you look at the edges you will still see little indentation marks where the flashback happened. Masking is a pain but it’s the way to go. No worries of a cardboard fire, no thickness changes to measure/remember to enter from stacking, etc…
I have cut a lot of mirrored Plexiglass. I found that a speed of 140 and power set at 85 gives great results. I keep the masking on. I cut with the shiny side up and with the shiny side down without any flashback.
Hi! I masked the front ONLY. didn’t need to flip over or reverse image. Is did speed 140 and power 85. I selected proof grade medium acrylic, and Voila! perfection. hope this helps…