I’ve read a lot of posts about people using various forms of self-adhesive on the underside of their cuts so that the cutouts can be easily adhered to something. While I was waiting on my order of “3M 467MP 200MP Adhesive” to arrive, I stumbled upon something (for a different laser type) that basically said “cutting these will vaporize the glue, forming a coating on the lens that will ruin the lense”.
So, of course, now I’m sitting here stuck between, “well everyone else is doing it” and “this one source says it will ruin my machine” (probably over time). I found the MSDS sheet for this 3M material, but cannot find anything on there one way or another to validate the warning.
Source: http://wiki.atxhs.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter_Materials
NEVER CUT THESE MATERIALS:
- Material with Sticky Glue Backing
There are many normally laserable items such as thin wood laminates that you can purchase that become un-cuttable when the manufacturer adds a layer of peel-off glue on the bottom to attach them to surfaces. Examples include cork tiles, thin wood laminate, acrylic tiles, and paper stickers. Never cut these materials in the laser cutter if they have this backing. The glue will vaporize forming a coating on the lens that will coat it, cloud it, heat it, and then potentially crack the lens. The glue residue is worse than resin, and can’t be removed without risking damage to the lens … requiring a lens replacement.
