Where is the best place to buy materials?

Beyond the Manual
21

And then go buy more shelves :slight_smile:

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Rinse, repeat. I know.

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I purchased some cut down sheets from them recently. Do you know if the paper/plastic coating is safe to laser? Iā€™ve attached a picture of it. Also, is the brand you get from them called ā€œChemcastā€?

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24

Iā€™ve never had problems with the paper, but I generally remove it before engraving.

As far as I know, chemcast supplies Glowforge with their colored acrylic. I use chemcast all the time.

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Great. Thank you for the reply.

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Iā€™ve gotten some of that stuff from TAP Plastics. I laser it with the covering on, and the Proofgrade settings for the closest color work great so far!

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Thank you.

28

What everyone else said. But if itā€™s got a plastic masking then remove it 100% of the time (paper I remove for engraves Iā€™m not going to paint or where Iā€™d be weeding forever due to the detail). Plastic masking just melts and globs up.

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As pictured above, it is paper with a thin layer of plastic under it. I actually had problems engraving with the protection paper removed. It seemed the laser vaporized the acrylic and left a very hard-to-remove film on the surface, around the recessed engrave, some that I could not remove. When I ran the design with the film, everything was fine (though it is not as easy to pull off as the PG masking). Do you not get a hazy film on the surface of the acrylic from the smoke/dust that is difficult to remove? Thank you for the feedback.

30

Iā€™m not sure itā€™s plastic - I use it all the time (I donā€™t find a lot of difference using PG Acrylic vs Chemcast or other cast acrylic so I go with whatā€™s available locally and/or cheapest :slight_smile: ). I think thatā€™s a glue layer - it does seem to be a film all by itself though when you peel it back.

Yep and especially noticeable as a ghosting on clear or a white shadow on black. Thatā€™s why I keep the paper on for my acrylic engraves. I know a lot of people always take it off, but Iā€™d rather weed a bit than have to work at removing the haze - I find that requires something like Novus polish and thatā€™s just more work.

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Gotcha. Thanks again for the reply. Iā€™m with you on keeping the paper on when engraving.

32

Same here - I leave the paper on to cut/engrave, because unmasked leaves a dusting of vaporized material that doesnā€™t look good and is hard to clean off. Weeding is harder than PG, but the variety of materials is amazing, as is the price. The only downsides are that you have to order 4x8 sheets, and it takes a week or two to get the material shipped between warehouses (unless they stock it locally), and then cut. So you have to plan in advance.

It really is nice talking with people who know the materials, layering, etc.

Wish I could find a place locally like this for wood! :slight_smile:

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