Questions about lasering mirrored acrylic

#1

Hey guys! I have some mirrored acrylic and great ideas on things to do with it but I’ve seen different information about lasering mirrors and I wanted to make sure I did it safely and not risk harming the laser!

I’ve seen that you can engrave the mirror from the front- but what about cutting? Can you only cut shapes out from the un-mirrored backside or is it okay to engrave and then cut at the same time from the front?

Also, does anyone have any experience cutting mirrored acrylic using any of the glowforge’s default material settings and have any recommendations what would work the best? This is the specific material I am working with: http://www.estreetplastics.com/Plexiglass-Acrylic-Mirror-Sheets-s/313.htm

#2

I looked in my notes for this plaque that used mirrored acrylic. I used medium PF acrylic setting with the mirror side facing up. Removed the making on top, left masking on the bottom to prevent flashback marks. It worked well.

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#3

estreet’s acrylics are thinner than proofgrade equivalents so you can use proofgrade settings as a reliable starting point.

Mirrored acrylic will cut and engrave safely from the front or the back so it doesnt really matter but you might want to engrave the back side. When you engrave the front, because there is clear material between the mirror surface and the engraved surface, you end up with a double image because the engraving reflects in the mirror underneath it. Engraving the back side (thus removing the mirroring) avoids that double image.

#4

And make sure your exhaust doesn’t leak. (You’ll find out why shortly.) :smile:

#5

you weren’t joking lol