Did some testing yesterday.
Acrylic glued into wood opening:
Plywood glued to acrylic:
Wood veneer on acrylic:
We decided to go with the wood veneer on acrylic. Placed our proofgrade order yesterday!
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I believe I like that one too! (They all look good. ) 
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Ooooooh, can’t wait to see what the whole project looks like!
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1 and 3, both look great.
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I agree. A couple times I picked them up confusing them for each other. We ultimately chose 3 over 1 because the glue shows through and there is more chance for error
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Cool, i’ve been wanting to test veneer on acrylic. I have a project in mind that i think would look awesome. Glad to see it see it works.
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Veneer on acrylic looks good. If you can find a thinner acrylic, you might want to go that way. (I have a roll of thick mylar from McMaster, so I use that for almost everything.)
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Thanks for sharing this! Your results are extremely helpful for a project that I’m hoping to tackle soon 
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We’re actually going the opposite. The test is one 1/8" acrylic and we’re going to be using 1/4". I think if you went thinner it would be too flexible.
One of the main things I have in mind be to make uses this same method. My plan is to do 1/8" wood > 1/8" acrylic > 1/8" wood, with the acrylic essentially laid engraved pockets, then gluing the wood front/back together to hold it in place.
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Thats a great idea! lots of time for engraving but it will looks amazing
Edit:
You could do a 3 layer sandwich when the thin proofgrade come out
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Yeah it’s obviously one of those things that may sound like a great solution until there’s a laser sitting in front of me. 1/16" or thinner would work even better in a case like this.
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the other thing you could consider in the future is using an even thinner veneer. maybe even one with adhesive backing, if that will cut safely.
i have 15/1000" veneer with adhesive backing that i can print on my inkjet. have not tested it out in a laser cutter yet, but will when the Universal gets here at work. It’s been run through the inkjet for testing and works great. Should work in a laser cutter, too. Definitely want to both print and cut it for models.
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Brilliant idea of using the adhesive backed veneer. In your case the acrylic is providing the structural integrity of the model, but if it weren’t the basic idea could be expanded. They sell large sheets of double sided adhesive so someone could go front fascia material + double-sided adhesive material + mylar/acrylic/other + depends on whether or not you can see the inside of the model.
I guess It just comes down to whether you feel more confident peeling and sticking laser cut adhesive/tape to something without messing up, or laying down a liquid adhesive without messing up.
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Even easier to apply, either before or after cutting: Xyron 624632 Creative Station, 9" with 5" Option https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X3EZ5VO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ug6PzbKXQ5PDR
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has anyone tested cutting the xyron on a laser? not sure what the composition of the adhesive is and whether there would be any flash burning from that. i would think any adhesives you should test first.
i have an older, metal 12" xyron at work that we use pretty regularly.
I have cut stickers that I made by applying 2-sided adhesive between layers of cardstock and EVA foam. Not Xyron brand (it was 3M) but probably similar. Had no troulble with it, worked great.
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i’ll definitely be testing out the xyron either when we get the universal here at work or when i get my glowforge, and hopefully it won’t cause any problems. either way if nobody else tests it first, i’ll post some results here. it’s not cheap, but it’s really easy to use on thin materials. we use it on paper and cardstock quite a bit. and the xyron machine can put adhesive on as well as laminate one or two sides. so you can put adhesive on the back and lam on the front.
Can it do both in one pass? Cool either way.
i think there are cartridges out there that will do both in one pass. i’ve never used the lamination, we stay as sustainable as we can and lamination is something we avoid when possible.
but, if it matters… i would also guess that the lamination is probably more likely to be not laser safe than the adhesive. not sure what the composition is.