I’m wondering if anyone knows if these are okay to laser cut: https://a.co/d/4UvFmWn
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Yup, acrylic mirrors are laser safe.
https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=Mirror%20acrylic%20in%3Afirst
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Oh okay, wasn’t sure if they were the same thing. Thanks!
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For any Aura users that come along and read this thread:
Bear in mind that the Aura cannot cut clear acrylic and most mirrors are made of clear acrylic with a shiny backing. So you’re very unlikely to be able to cut mirror acrylic with an Aura.
(@alykasa i’m fairly sure you don’t have an Aura, your account is too old for that.)
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On this piece, I masked the clear face and put it face-down on the bed. Then I engraved the design, followed by cutting out. It was a gift to a fiber artist known as Heartwoven.
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That is really nice. I haven’t done anything with acrylic mirrors but now I want to give it a try.
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When you say that you masked the clear face, does that mean the mirror side? And, you engraved with the backside on top?
1 more- is this acrylic or glass?
Such an interesting piece!
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Can’t speak for Kelley, but looking at the piece, I’d say the masking was placed on the clear side (the one you look into) to protect it from scratches when it was placed face-down on the bed. The mirrored side (the back) gets lasered.
You can do this with either glass or acrylic mirrors. Here’s an acrylic mirror I made a couple of years ago:
The red text was created by coloring the engraved back with a red alcohol pen.
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Welcome to the community!
the ‘clear’ face is the non-mirror face. On my acrylic, the mirror side has a grey finish. I mask the clear side because the laser heats the honeycomb bed as it cuts. Such heat in contact with acrylic will make permanent stains that are hard to remove*. That’s why I mask the clear face, to protect it from the heat and off-gassing.
The side facing the laser is grey (the backing of the mirror), does not neeed masking in most cases, as it will not be seen. By engraving through the backside, it gives the engraving a heightened 3-D look.
The heart piece is acrylic. Here’s another:
I spray painted the engraved side black for max contrast. The clear masking on the face side has not been peeled yet, so it has a muted appearance.
*It’s the acrylic equivalent of a water stain on your table.
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Thank you for the help!
Thank you, I can’t wait to try this.
May I ask what settings you use?
Thank you!