Has anyone used Trotec’s Trolase acrylic? I have some 1/8" white on black, but I’m not sure what settings I should use. I’ve heard people say they use the proofgrade settings for non-proofgrade material such as this with success. I want to do more with acrylic, but it kind of scares me a bit. LOL Any tips, thoughts, setting suggestions are welcome.
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I have more issues with glue than engraving.
If engraving vectors a bit more than halfway through I use 1000, full and 675 LPI. Less than that and I start seeing stripes that I want to avoid, though I may be more extreme on that then most folk. I also set the focus at 0.2 so what striping there is is suppressed.
With the 3d carving I use 1000 to 1600 speed with full power and 1355 LPI to get really clean engraves, and still with 1/8 material and still the focus gets set to 0.2 for 1/8 material unless I want it a bit frosty.
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Thank you @rbtdanforth. What do you mean you have more issues with glue? Are you referring to the masking?
There is not very much that will glue acrylic without ruining it and sticking acrylic to wood or something many times worse, CA glue leaves a huge mess on acrylic even used close by, Wood glue does not stick at all, and the official glue that you are supposed to use melts the acrylic, which makes a nice seal where touching but a mess if touching anything else (like a clamp). In addition the glue is near boiling at room temperatures and evaporates immediately from any container not well sealed. I try an keep it near freezing temperatures but it is hard to handle in ways the keep it that way.
Testors model glue is supposed to be reasonable but I have not acquired any as yet, 
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Proofgrade settings have always worked for me for cutting. Engraving two color acrylic requires a bit of testing so that just enough of the top layer is removed to expose the core color. Sometimes I run a second engrave at very low power to clean the residue of color out of the engrave.
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Thank you, everyone! I’m going to get brave and see what happens!
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I just started experimenting with trolase acrylic myself, using their 1/16th inch. White on black and black on white. I gave up on the black on white pretty quick because I found the white to get very sooty and wasn’t able to clean it well. I have had some good engraves with the white on black, but keep getting a more greyed black. Not sure if it is a soot problem, but I can’t seem to clean it to a deep black.
The settings I have arrived at for engraving are 300speed 40 power, at 340 LPI, with a focus of 0.1, the material is 0.06. I find the slight defocus helps it not come out “liney”. Cuts are consistent at 220speed/full power.
I remove their protective coating and lay a painters tape overtop. I do find that the edges remain tacky, even with a good clean.
Wondering how much success you are having with yours.
There are some settings in the Google doc for 1/16" Inventable two color acrylic. Suggestions there are 1000/40/225. Have you tried a low power second engrave to remove the residue. Also, for most acrylic I find masking not necessary for engraves.
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Can you link the doc?
I just watched a trotec video talking about the material. Seems that for the black they suggest defocusing by around 0.09 to 0.125, and using a mr. clean magic eraser to clean the part. I then redid my engraving tests and am sneaking up on the least power needed to get through the top surface. Seems 55 still goes through all, will continue to reduce power and see when it doesn’t get completely through.
Well, I’m managing to get some not bad results.
I’ve been commissioned to make garden markers for the gardens around my parents’ senior living facility. The only problem I’m having is the greenish residue in the engraving that I can’t seem to clean off. I’ve tried everything! Not even Googone works.
The settings you gave are for 1/16" right? I’m using 1/8" and the PG settings for medium acrylic.
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Try magic eraser! I think the engraving settings will be the same between 1/16 and 1/8th since the white coating on the top is the same
@wessels.creations I don’t have any magic erasers on hand, but I did find some Norwex cleaning paste in the cupboard and that helped a little. It’s still not perfect, but it’s better.
I’m still a little confused about the defocusing thing. How do you know how much to adjust the focus?
On the bottom of the panel where you choose your settings is a value called focus height. It is usually set to auto, which matches the thickness you chose for your material setup. But you can change it so that the laser is focused somewhere else, thus putting it out of focus on the material. Essential the laser’s beam is slightly wider when it is out of focus, helping to get rid of lines showing up in the engrave. I have found adding 0.09 inches to the thickness for your focus height helps get rid of the lining quite a lot
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