Refined settings for 1/16" 2-color acrylic (like from Inventables)

Beyond the Manual
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I had a project that required this stuff and found I was not happy with my existing settings. I made some improvements and discovered some other tips along the way. You can get some really nice results with this stuff, but it does need some care.

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Engraving

Best results:
Speed 1000, Power 15, LPI 675

Notes:

As has been said, the plastic masking that comes on the product makes a gooey mess in engraving. I experimented with paper masking too–forget it. Getting through the masking takes a surprising amount of power and really reduces engraving detail.

Engraving too deeply causes problems, too. Plastic dust blows across the piece, and the deeper you engrave, the more dust there is. The top color gets mixed into all the dust you create and it seems like the deeper you go, the dirtier your engrave looks. At Speed 1000, Power 15, LPI 675 I got clean engraves with no color deposited on the exposed white later–no need for a second cleaning pass. The dust on the un-engraved surface came off easily, too. At this low power, you won’t miss the masking.

Below 675 LPI you very obviously lose resolution. I tried to get lower LPI to produce satisfactory results, but couldn’t. Maybe if you increased power… But then you have the issue of more engraving residue, and you can’t use masking. 675 LPI is worth the extra time on this material.

Cutting

Best results:
Speed 200, Power 100

Notes:

Cutting seems to work OK with plastic or paper masking.

This material also produced a sticky cut edge, and the color will come off on your fingers. Some web research indicated this is not unheard of for the 2-color engraving plastics and may be common in some extruded acrylics. 100% isopropyl alcohol cleaned the sticky edge up. Some say if you wait a couple of days, it goes away on its own.

Other Notes

Alcohol will take off some of the color if you rub hard, so if you aren’t careful, you can muddy the exposed white color with your cleaning pass!

The red inset in the image was made by engraving/cutting a piece in the same kind of material in red/white, and plugging it into a matching cut shape.

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Thanks for sharing your test results! I have a few sheets of this and the second pass was effective, but time consuming.

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Nice testing, thanks! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Cleaning that residue out of the engrave, I found blasting it out with alcohol in a spray bottle worked well, and didn’t require any rubbing.

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Thank you for sharing your settings!

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Thank you for sharing! Worked like a charm.

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Thank you for sharing !!

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Used this for .017" gold/black acrylic from Inventables. Your settings worked perfectly out of the gate.

I do need to factor in an anti-flashback layer of material. You can see the honeycomb graduations reflected back into the edges. I want to do some more testing with the cut settings and scores.

Engraving is perfect.

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This was SO timely! I have one piece of Inventables black & gold and not one clue about what settings to use. Thank you so much!

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Some cheap paper masking on the back would probably help. I noticed the same issue.

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These settings are perfect!

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Did you use masking tape on yours before engraving?

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Welcome to the forum.
Please read the original post from GrooveStranger regarding maskings, settings, etc. It is all there.

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I tried one with tape (using settings I’d previously used for single-color acrylic) and one without tape, using the settings in the first post in this topic. The one without masking worked much, much better!

On such a low power engrave the masking is entirely unnecessary and just makes it harder to get the settings exactly right. Tape is too variable in thickness, adhesive, etc. and you end up with an inconsistent result. You end up with much sharper lettering if you put the acrylic in with no masking at all.

The Speed 1000/Power 15/675LPI settings just work like magic on this stuff.

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Thank you so much

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Thank you so ,much I was just working on one of these.

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Would this work on their 1/8 sheet as well?

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You could start your tests with these settings, but it is possible that the top layer of 1/8" material may be thicker than 1/16" material. Perhaps use the search tool to see if anyone has shared settings for two color 1/8" acrylic.

Here is one thread to consider: Innovative Plastics Two Color Laserable Acrylics Settings

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I looked at my samples and I don’t have any 1/8" product to compare… but I would be really surprised if it required different settings if the thickness was the only indicated difference.

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Thank you so much-- I’d been struggling for a month to get something that looked good through the masking on rowmark marble/brass-- i’ve got some truly impressively terrible-looking tests-- and as soon as I took the mask off and used your settings (dropped slightly to 1000/10 instead of 1000/15) it worked like a charm even though I’m working with .02 in (<1/32) plastic. You’ve saved me so much sanity.

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