For Christmas I got a Betterpress system, and of course the first thing I wanted to try was making my own plates (the commercially available metal ones are quite expensive). The metal plates are 1mm thick, so it seemed like I might get away with engraving 1mm thick acrylic. This is what I used.
TLDR, with a few caveats, you can do it!
I’ll step you through what I did using Glowforge Premium if you want to try it. (These steps can also be performed using the external svg editor of your choice.) I made these using black acrylic on the Aura, but if you have a Performance laser you can use clear or white acrylic and get a better inking experience.
- Created a design using Magic Canvas, and also created a cutting border for it using the Outline function.
- Did a vertical reflection, and separated the outline from the image. Note: if your image is a vector, you will need to set it for engraving before the next step so the shape is filled in.
- Create a rubber stamp using the rubber stamp tool.
- Now, re-center the outline over the engraving and set up the engraving and cut conditions. I used Proofgrade settings for Eco Thin Black Acrylic (HD engrave setting, and Proofgrade cut but speed adjusted to 30 to account for the thinner acrylic). Note: if you get the 1mm acrylic I used, be sure to remove the plastic masking before you use it.
- The finished plate does come out a little warped due to the heat, and that leads to an inked outline when you use it on the BetterPress. We can trim that off later.
- To trim the letterpressed piece, tape a piece of scrap card to the Aura grid. Move only the image outline to the card, and reduce the size of the outline by about 0.03 inches. Cut the outline, and without shifting the card, center your letter pressed image under the cut outline. Tape the letter pressed piece to the grid and remove the scrap card. Cut the outline.
(In the above example I did not reduce the outline width and there was still residual edge ink after cutting).
I plan to try this process with thin basswood sheets to see if I can get less warpage and not have to trim off the outline. Also, I did these experiments with cheap cold press watercolor paper, not letterpress paper, and Ranger Archival ink rather than letterpress ink. So it’s likely I can get better results. This is a work in progress!
