Normal Flame Tendencies When Cutting?

Beyond the Manual
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Hi,

I’m using Inventables Matte Black on Gold Laserable Acrylic Sheet:

When cutting using 165 speed / full power, there is a noticeable flame that I haven’t been use to when cutting on proofgrade acrylic. I’ve provided a video (sorry it’s not the best quality) but it should demonstrate the flames being seen. The flames are extinguished and do not carry over after the head is moved. I’m just wondering if this is normal and should I be worried? I’m watching every print cautiously with this material.

Thanks!

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Nope. That’s normal for some materials. The air assist (fan) at the head is designed to blow that out.

You do want to keep an eye on the flamey stuff though. Never hurts to be too careful. :grinning:

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Awesome, thanks for the feedback Jules! I about wet my pants on the first cut but now it feels a little more normal (at least enough for me to watch without breaking a sweat on my brow) :smiley:

Thanks again!

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If it’s masked with a plastic masking, try removing it. I’ve had that with some 2-layer Inventibles stuff.

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That looks like great material. Can you show close up detail of a section after printing? I want to see how it looks up closer.

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3 new photos by Derrick Lingle

Google Photos
Google Photos

(Close up pics above)

Tom_A: The material came with that plastic but it was removed before cutting.

I actually found out if I ran a score before the cut then it takes off the top layer (which is causing the extra flames). Scoring and then cutting = WIN

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I had a blue&black marble looking two color that flared a lot. Looked better sitting on the desk than it did made into anything so setting it aside was an easy decision.
Looking at yours, I now suspect it is whatever they use to make the black in the veneer color.
Innocuous, except the fan accelerates flare and blows it across design and causes char unless masked.
Usually acrylic is no mask and just clean up with alcohol, but this needs masking.

PSA: Weird mishap had me wanting to clean some dribbles off of a finished design using gold-on-black acrylic instead of just tossing and remaking. I reached for the acetone, since the alcohol just shined the gold and ignored the spill.
Acetone removes the second color veneer on two color acrylic.
Yikes.

Some weird necessity, or future meeting of the voids, may make this a useful and handy thing to know (never say never), but until then I suggest avoiding acetone and two color acrylic meetings.

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You could also try replacing their masking with pain ol’ masking tape. May reduce flare. If you feel like trying it, I’d love to know the result.

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Thanks so much for the help in this topic, everyone! Since this is being seen on materials that were purchased from another company, I’m going to move this thread to Beyond the Manual so the discussion can continue there. Should this happen with a print on Proofgrade materials, please open a new ticket in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!