Hi,I’m looking for the settings to engrave a qr code on 3mm acrylic. I have reduced speed. Increased lpi but it’s hardly engraving. I want to paint fill so I need to be somewhat deep. Ive been searching online a few days but the tips I am following using is not working. Can someone advise please. Thank you!
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A higher power might help. Higher power, slower speed, and higher LPI are all things that make engraves deeper. If you have an Aura then the color of the acrylic makes a big diffrence.
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3mm acrylic is Proofgrade Medium. Did you start with the closest Proofgrade Medium color engrave setting? (If your acrylic is white, pastel, clear or blue the Aura or Spark won’t do much to it but the larger GFs will be fine)
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Engraving acrylic is rather standard, and using Proofgrade settings should work very well. Is it possible your optics need to be cleaned? Can you share a photo of one of your unsuccessful attempts?
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Ditto.
PG settings. If you want it deeper make sure your code is black and you’re using the vary power setting (I believe that’s SD).
If you want it even deeper either lower the speed, raise the power, or run it twice.
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Another great tip for engraving is by @evansd2 - use wood glue as your masking, rather than the regular masking materials. I use this method for all of my engraving/filling on acrylic, as the glue works great for keeping paint from seeping underneath, and any that does happen to seep is easily scraped off. I usually let the glue dry before engraving (I just use PG settings), engrave, then do your painting, either acrylic or spray paint, and then peel the glue off. I usually let the paint dry a little before peeling off the glue, just because then I don’t have to worry about getting wet paint all over me when I’m peeling the glue.
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I missed that tip somehow. Thank you @ellencadwell and @evansd2 .
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For more details.
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Ah, I do remember your key holding fixture. 
I must have just forgotten the glue part (even though it was the main subject of the post)
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Yeah I’d skim my posts too. I talk way too much.
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Normally, I read your whole post because they have a lot of great info. I must have been tired when I saw this one.
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4 likes?! You guys weren’t supposed to agree with me!
Cold blooded, man. 
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Hi Ellen! Im new with engraving and painting. I didn’t understand what you said about the wood paint, is it on the acrylic or on top of the masking tape? I have a blue acrylic and I need to engrave on there and paint it white. May you please give me more info on this topic? Thanks
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Hi and welcome to Glowforge - you’re gonna love it!
The glue is a replacement for the masking. So remove any masking from your acrylic, lay down a thin layer of glue, run your engrave, paint over the glue into the engrave, then pull/wash off the glue.
Here’s the write-up with pictures that was posted above:
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Here’s what I do with acrylic: peel off any pre-applied masking first, and then spread a light coat of wood glue (not wood paint) over the entire surface of the acrylic. Let the glue dry. Laser your design. Remember that if you are using clear acrylic and want the top to be the smooth side, to flip your design so that you’re engraving the back of the acrylic (but still engraving the glue-coated side).
After engraving, use a soft brush to clean out the engraved area (I actually have a small air blower that I use), paint the engraved area - don’t worry about going over the edges, the paint will peel off with the glue, and any that might seep under will easily scraped off. Let the paint dry.
When the paint is dry (or mostly dry), it’s time to peel the glue off. I use a straight pin to gently pull up an edge of the glue and peel it off. The straight pin makes it really easy to get up the tiny little spots, like in the middle of small letters like a’s and e’s, etc. I admit that I haven’t tried using duct tape to see if it’ll peel the glue off.
One really nice feature of using wood glue is that it leaves nice smooth edges on the engraves, whereas using masking leaves a little ridge.
I have also used dish soap instead of the wood glue, and it also works. Just spread a light coat of dish soap over the acrylic (I do both sides), engrave, and paint. One major difference between the glue and dish soap is that you should only paint a small area at a time and wipe off the excess before the paint has a chance to dry. It’ll wipe off easily with a paper towel, but you have to be careful not to wipe it out of your design. I made the mistake of letting it dry completely and had a really hard time removing it. Once the paint is dry, you can wash the dish soap off. (And if I’m only cutting and not engraving, I always just use dish soap, because it leaves the smooth edges and so easy to just rinse the pieces off.)
Hope that helps you!
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Oh wow thank you for the detailed instructions! Thank you so much and I can’t wait to try!
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Thank you so much for the information! I’m excited to see how clean it will look!
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