I ordered some really high-quality gold mirrored acrylic from a supplier on Alibaba. I did multiple test cuts and found one that doesn’t scorch the material leaving any bad finishes. The issue I have is that every time I cut something I have to push the cut piece out sometimes breaking it. It looks like when the material is being cut it is sticking back to itself almost like it’s being welded. The backside seems to be cut all the way and pushing out pieces in between letters is easier than separating the entire word from the sheet. I have to push it out with a little force but I want to start making mirrored acrylic place cards and this issue is making me not want to. Is this normal for mirrored acrylic? I have cut a lot of other acrylic pieces clear, frosted and coloured where they separate themselves from the sheet when I pick it up. I have tried going through the form to see if anyone has mentioned this and can’t find any mention of this particular issue nor could I find videos on youtube of people showing the removal of mirrored acrylic pieces to know if it’s a normal thing. Also if there’s a way I could fix this issue because its driving me crazy! Thank you in advance!
try putting some wasteboard under the acrylic and upping the power just a bit (or slowing it down, either one).
As you probably know, when working with mirrored acrylic often you want to just barely cut through it, the foil can bubble up if you overpower the cut. Sounds like you got that part down, which is great.
Unfortunately, all acrylics can sometimes re-weld like that if you’re doing a bare minimum cut. Plain acrylics are pretty tolerant of a little extra laser power so you can give it some extra juice to avoid the re-weld, but since the mirrored stuff is a bit more sensitive so you have to go a different way.
I’ve had best success by doing a two-pass process with mirrored. I would try a new material test with 2 passes and find settings that work for you. You can go lighter and faster with two passes, delivering enough power to cleanly cut while not overheating things and damaging the mirror foil.
If you’ve not familiar with it, my test method is laid out in #6, here:
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