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donald bugansky
12-20-2009, 1:26 PM
Hello,

Last night I decided to make some of those wonderful Christmas ornaments being shared here.

I went to local home improvement store and purchased some lexan as it was thicker than the acrylic they had on the shelf.

When I went to vector it, it cut fine except that it left a brown residue that wouldn't come off. I also tried to engrave a word on it and just produced ugly brown smoke.

I'll head back out today and get some acrylic.

Any tricks to working with lexan? less power, more power, etc.

Thanks

James Jaragosky
12-20-2009, 1:32 PM
Hello,

Last night I decided to make some of those wonderful Christmas ornaments being shared here.

I went to local home improvement store and purchased some lexan as it was thicker than the acrylic they had on the shelf.

When I went to vector it, it cut fine except that it left a brown residue that wouldn't come off. I also tried to engrave a word on it and just produced ugly brown smoke.

I'll head back out today and get some acrylic.

Any tricks to working with lexan? less power, more power, etc.

Thanks
Cannot comment on lexan. Typically the borgs carry extruded acrylic.
Cast acrylic is the preferred product to work with, as you will get better and more consistent results. Try McMaster Carr if you cannot locate any locally.
Good luck
Jim J.

John Noell
12-20-2009, 2:04 PM
Lexan is polycarbonate. Do a search here on polycarbonate and you wil find you are not alone! As far as I know it always behaves as you found.

Joe Pelonio
12-20-2009, 3:21 PM
Lexan is only good for industrial applications, for art projects like ornaments you will be disappointed. Not only do you get that nasty edge, but even yellow smoke. I have been assured that it's safe to cut but still avoid it.

One tip that can help some is to remove the film, apply transfer tape to both sides, and spray with water. On a larger cutting job you may need to pause and mist the top again, being careful not to get water on your lens/mirror.

It keeps down the flame and reduces the brown, but still doesn't cut like acrylic.

For ornaments, I like the "green edge" clear acrylic, cuts nice and looks like glass.

Scott Shepherd
12-20-2009, 6:06 PM
I had a lexan job once.......last time for that.

I was in a very commercial area, lots of people. Lots of women workers in office buildings. Was cutting the lexan and heard a bunch of people talking outside my office, outside. That wasn't uncommon, since people are always walking around the parking lot, or some contractor is looking at something on the building. After the noise didn't go away, I decided to look and it was a bunch of women standing out by my vent, on cell phones. I stopped the machine and went outside to find they were on the phone asking their supervisor to call the fire department because the building had smoke coming out of it.

It took me 10 minutes to break them up and get them moving along "Show's over, nothing to see here :)". You could see the smoke lingering across the parking lot.

Nasty, nasty stuff, and that was 1/16" as well. Never ever seen so much smoke from any object.

Avoid it if you can.

donald bugansky
12-20-2009, 6:41 PM
After reading the posts, I headed to the local home improvement store and purchased a pile of acrylic.

I purchased both 1/8" and 1/4". 1/8" - no problem. 1/4", another story. Separate post on 1/4" assistance.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks again for your assistance.