Hello,
So this is my first post on the community… and I need you guys help. I’m making a very simple engraved acrylic invite. The text will be the only thing engraved. On my 3mm cast acrylic with the proof grade setting the engraving is barely showing up. I don’t know what else to do I might add that on the proofgrade setting the engraving process was 32 minutes 
when I tried to change it manually and say double pass or change inches per line all operations were all over an hour for a 5*7 . What can I try I ultimately want the frosty white engraving.
Try taking the masking off before you engrave it.
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Will that by any chance char the acrylic? If so is there a way to clean it after?
Acrylic can be rinsed off. (Much easier to clean than the woods.) And no, it shouldn’t char on an engrave.
As far as charring goes, the main thing to worry about is flashback, and that happens on the bottom. Just leave the bottom mask on. 
Run some tests on a scrap of the acrylic using a word or two, then once you like the result, use those settings for the entire invitation.
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Is that cast acrylic? Extruded acrylic will not give you the frosty white color. Cast acrylic is best for engraving, extruded acrylic is good for cutting. Also, any time you have acrylic with plastic masking, remove it before engraving or it will just melt. You want paper-based masking only.
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Yes cast acrylic, will definitely try to take plastic off and try without it
NOT!
I tried making some delicate earrings and the bottom of the cut just melted back together. I thought “how badly could it do on an ice tray” and by the time the cut was strong enough to go through it also melted back together, but the piece was big and simple enough to get the piece out but it still broke in one place.
If the Chemcast acrylic I use for cutting ISN’T a good choice, I’d like to know how it can get better!
I have no knowledge of what you use I bought a number of colored Acrylics, some have the Chemcast label and work fine (the cast in Chemcast is probably a hint) I engrave them fine and cut some amazingly delicate earrings with it without problems. There was however three pieces that had no label (also a hint) and that is the stuff that is melting back together.
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Extruded just isn’t worth the $ savings to me. It doesn’t engrave well and it’s brittle. I much prefer cast acrylic.
It was not even a matter of money. I bought a number of sheets and some of them were not cast, either because they did not say or because I did not read closely enough. I will not make that mistake again ( I hope).
Watch out for polycarbonate if you’re getting mixed contents. It looks like acrylic but will generally make a slaggy mess when you cut it.
Lots of places that don’t know better treat all “plastic” sheets as the same stuff when in reality they have far different characteristics.
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I have not seen polycarbonate in colors and this stuff did not have the breaking resistance.
Looking at your image it seemed like you engraved the text. Shouldn’t that be reversed? You want to engrave everything around the text so that text pops up so you can ink and stamp the raised letters?
Most definitely… thank you!
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