Mirrored acrylic troubles (again)

Ok, so mirrored acrylic is my ongoing struggle, but I refuse to give up.
I have been having a problem with impurities within the mirrored acrylic even as everything cuts and engraves beautifully. Please let me know if anyone has seen something like this and how they fixed (the impurity is right underneath the hole cut at the top)

it… (this one has a similar problem at the top) all is within the acrylic

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Most likely flashback. Either mask both sides, or try @geek2nurse’s tip of putting aluminum foil underneath to block flashback. Looks good from a far so far :grin:

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Thank you! I will try that :slight_smile:

Where do I put the aluminum foil exactly? Under the piece or should I raise it up?

It’s not really an "impurity. "It’s from the laser. Just put the foil on the honeycomb bed. Nothing fancy.
:slight_smile:

I really like mirrored acrylic, but it’s so finicky. I don’t care for personal projects, but I’d be stressed if I were selling it. d

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Definitely either mask the front or lay down some aluminum foil. It also helps very much to cut and etch from the “back” side or the grey/treated/coated side.

I buy a lot of mirrored acrylic from Canal Plastics to make small, delicate necklaces out of. I leave the plastic protective material that it ships with on the front side, I don’t mask the back side and I engrave and cut with the grey/treated back side facing up and have pretty much eliminated these defects. I cut at 170/full and engrave at 1000/full.

Mirrored acrylic smells terrible and is a little finicky but once you nail down the settings I’ve had pretty consistent results.

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thank you!

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