This is Inventables 2 Colour 1/8 acrylic. I tried the suggested settings off the website and below. Yet I get the melted look for what I wanted for a white.
Cut: 155 speed, 100 power, 2 passes
Engrave: 1000 speed, 20 power, 2 passes
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Two things might help.
You can try to Defocus the laser by doubling your material height setting (if .100 make it .200) - I don’t do this usually, but it might help
and
Check your LPI setting. 225 will get rid of some of the banding but
I often use 1 pass for the engraving (at around 30 to 40 power) and cutting at 200/80. You can always run a second cut pass if needed, just check before moving your material if the piece is cut.
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Thanks I’ll try your suggestion next time!
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Did you remove the making for the engrave?
hi, I’m new to GF, just got mine recently.
I’m trying to cut thin, 2mm (0,08") black acrylic, but it seems to be melting the sheet. (I have used standard gf settings for medium acrylic.) what settings would you recommend? Should I remove the protective film before glow forging it?
Yeah, the medium acrylics for Proofgrade are 3mm thick, so you’ve got the power too high, or the speed too slow if you are using the defaults. You’re going to need to use Manual settings.
(Plenty of starter settings in the Beyond the Manual section.) 
Yes, you should remove the protective film before glowforging it.
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The website said to leave it on. I’m going to ask the company if that was a mistakw. Thanks! Maybe that’s the problem
The other thing is that sometimes engraving acrylic produces a sort of a “snow” that builds up on random surfaces. You can sometimes scrub it, or sometimes do a light very fast pass to zap it off.
Another vote for taking off the plastic masking. It’s there to protect against scratches but otherwise annoying. And hard to get off after zapping.
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As acrylic is in no danger of warping from absorbed moisture I find soaking the pieces in a small box with lots of alcohol handcleaner dissolves the adhesive and it just falls off making weeding a snap.
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If the protective cover is plastic, remove it. If the protective cover is paper (tape) like material, you may want to keep it on as it helps with clean up, but can cause issue with engrave depth. Always do a small test first to know if the masking should be removed or kept and if you have laser setting that are going to work for your machine and material.
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SUCCESS! You were right Take the film off! The film melted to The acrylic. The best settings I found:
Engraving: 1000 Speed, 40 power, 225 DPI, 2 passes
Cutting: 200 speed, 80 power, 3 passes
I’m wondering if any or had success for a deeper engrave with only 2 passes? I really like the deeper engrave on my fail but don’t want to melt the material
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