engraving acrylic

[Graham Taylor]

Is it best practice to leave the protective film on both sides of acrylic when engraving for protection or just remove the side being engraved?

[Mike Troncalli]

It's a difficult question and I suspect you'll get a lot of different answers. That being said all I can do is tell you my personal experience with acrylic. I use the good old standard 1/6" - 1"18" home depot or lowes acrylic sheets. I have found (on several jobs) that when engraving it is best to remove the protective cover. When engraving with the cover on it tends to melt to the edge of the engraving. However when cutting out shapes I always leave at least the bottom portion on to prevent scorch marks and smoke deposits near the cut.

Like I said at the beginning this is what works for me. Others may have another opinion.. Your best bet is to try with and without and see what results work best for you.

[Ross Moshinsky]

On when cutting. Off when engraving.

[Dennis Heskett]

Is it best practice to leave the protective film on both sides of acrylic when engraving for protection or just remove the side being engraved?

Leave on one side (down) Remove the up side. This refers to CAST acrylic which is the type that engraves well and cuts smooth edges as well.

Regards!

[Mike Null]

Depending on what I am doing I may leave the coating in place if it is paper. I also remove the top surface and leave the bottom in place on some jobs. If the coating is plastic I remove it from both sides.

[Michael Hunter]

I've bought acrylic from various sources over the years and have never seen paper protection in the UK - it has always been polythene film.

I remove the top film, but leave the bottom on to protect against scratches from the honeycomb table.
For anything important, I also add a layer of transfer tape to the bottom - this stops the tick marks made by reflections from the table.

[Clark Pace]

Interesting. In my experience cast generally has a paper coating here in the USA. Extruded comes in both. I'm sure you can get cast in plastic, but non of the local dealers here carry it.

Oh and generally when engraving take the the top layer off, and cutting it just depends.

[Graham Taylor]

Thank you gentlemen, I will whip off the top layer (this is what I have done in the past but beiong new I just wanted to check what the more experienced people did)

[Jiten Patel]

Graham,

Make sure you take of the plastic layer before engraving. It will simply melt on and makes a mess of a job. If you are both cutting and rastering, then I cut first, then ween the plastic out the parts that will be rastered, then run the rastered part. A little longer than running it all together, but you will get clean cuts with less clean up afterwards. If you look at cut acrylic which has had the plastic taken off before being cut, you will get a frosty coating around the edges and it can be a nightmare to clean off.

Not sure if this has been mentioned here before but I found an amazing tip which works really really well for me. I spray on anti-static spray on the acrylic (once you have peeled off the plastic coating) and use a lint free cloth to wipe down the entire surface (until dry). Then run the raster job and you will end up with very little acrylic dust on the surface of the material or in the cabinet. The dust globs together into little balls. This helps massively for cleaning and also reduces the chance of the dust messing with your job. There still will be a layer of dust but nowhere near as much as it would be without using the spray and it wipes off with one wipe. Lastly it also helps keep your machine cleaner as the dust isn't fine particles but larger balls (read blobs). Hope this helps some others.

[Graham Taylor]

Graham,

Make sure you take of the plastic layer before engraving. It will simply melt on and makes a mess of a job. If you are both cutting and rastering, then I cut first, then ween the plastic out the parts that will be rastered, then run the rastered part. A little longer than running it all together, but you will get clean cuts with less clean up afterwards. If you look at cut acrylic which has had the plastic taken off before being cut, you will get a frosty coating around the edges and it can be a nightmare to clean off.

Not sure if this has been mentioned here before but I found an amazing tip which works really really well for me. I spray on anti-static spray on the acrylic (once you have peeled off the plastic coating) and use a lint free cloth to wipe down the entire surface (until dry). Then run the raster job and you will end up with very little acrylic dust on the surface of the material or in the cabinet. The dust globs together into little balls. This helps massively for cleaning and also reduces the chance of the dust messing with your job. There still will be a layer of dust but nowhere near as much as it would be without using the spray and it wipes off with one wipe. Lastly it also helps keep your machine cleaner as the dust isn't fine particles but larger balls (read blobs). Hope this helps some others.


Thanks Jit,

I have only been using the machine to produce our own stuff (mylar, MDF) and this is the 1st external job I have been asked to do and it is for a large national fast food chain so hopefully there may be more work to follow.

To be honest I am slightly bricking it but I should be fine as long as I think about what I am doing.

On another note, I have been asked by a sign company near me if I can "do a sign 6in by 3ins white acrylic with bolt green engraved text". I am guessing they mean bottle green and the only material I can think of to do this is using Trotecs Trolase reverse in white and then paint filling the engraved text.

Any other suggestions for the best way to do this?

Thanks as usual for the invaluable adice given to me and the less experienced here

[Ross Moshinsky]

Engraving acrylic is stupid easy for the most part. It's very much a throw in the machine, run it, clean it off a bit, and pack it up material. You really shouldn't be concerned.

As for the sign company, you have two main options. Take a piece of white acrylic, engrave it, and then color fil. The second is get a piece of white laminate with a green core. Both have their pros and cons.

[Steve Garber]

What would you use to color fill with, Ross? Just green spray paint with the liner in place on the rest?

[Ross Moshinsky]

What would you use to color fill with, Ross? Just green spray paint with the liner in place on the rest?

Depends. I luckily don't have to do a lot of color fill and recommend to customers that it's less cost effective, but if I have two it goes either one of two ways. 1. Buy a spray paint that matches closely. 2. Go get custom paint made up. That rarely happens for us when it comes to little engraved items because rarely does anyone want to pay the extra money that's associated with custom paint. Once you have the paint, you can either brush, squeegee, or airbrush it in. Completely your call.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?234139-Product-till-fill-engraved-areas-as-im-etching