What am I doing wrong acrylic coasters fail?

[evansd2]

Yeah what he said about the crazing. But you also have acrylic vapor that condenses on the surface, leading to that hazy appearance. The soap trick will solve your problem with the hazing.

You may want to try elevating your acrylic to avoid flashback, as described here:

Suspended ablation

When cutting acrylic, I’ve observed what looks a bit like chipping along the cut edges. It’s one of those things that once you see it, you can’t stop seeing it - so consider that before continuing with this post Initially it seemed random, such that some edges were clean and others beset with ‘chips’: [Drawing3] Root cause is the build tray. When the laser cuts through the acrylic and hits the metal grid of the build tray, some of the photons are reflected back up to the acrylic, cre…