Glass or acrylic

[Junior hall]

Which do you prefer engraving on glass or acrylic. The reason i am asking is because i can get all the glass i want for free compared to acrylic i ave to pay for. The glass is from regular house windows and sliding glass doors.

I Hope i do not get chastised again

[Brian Leavitt]

I prefer acrylic because it's quicker and I can get much finer detail.

[Kristopher Powers]

Where do you buy your acrylic? I want to try cutting it but it at such a high cost. How do you get your glass for free? (just scraps?)

[Mike Troncalli]

Hey, if you can get free glass panels go for it...

True though Acrylic is easier to engrave and cut, glass can work pretty good too.

[Jerome Stanek]

does patio door glass engrave I thought it was tempered and would shatter

[Mark Ross]

Whatever materials you can get for free and turn into $$$ is what I would recommend.

[David Somers]

Junior,

If the glass is free what the heck! Nothing lost to try it. When I was working in ME for low wages I used to get market squid from fishermen when it was a byproduct of mackeral fishing and of no value to them. It was free. Took a while to learn to cook it right. But it was free!!!! No harm done other than to give me really strong jaw muscles from eating squid cooked wrong! (Think eating tire rubber with great flavor!)

Search the forum for advice on glass. There is a bunch on engraving it. And some discussion about cutting it. Or I should say scoring it to break. Sounds tricky and marginally successful.

Have fun!

Dave

[Junior hall]

Brian Leavitt
Thanks

Kristopher Powers I would buy it from either Lowes or Home Depot

Mike Troncalli / Mark Ross
I agree free money with free glass
I agree i was always told lord give me some thing for nothing so i can sell for some thing

Jerome Stanek the sliding glass doors i seen are glass Also have broken several of them

Kristopher Powers I know a person ( business ) that does vinyl siding and windows and also a glass company that remodels houses and they have 4 huge construction dumpsters loaded every week as the owner said i can have all that i want and then some to please come take all i want... Also Kristopher i have went to mirrors and glass company's and asked for there scraps. Couple of them any thing less than 44 inches of mirror they call scrap. I call free money. This window glass place these windows are still in cased with the wood frames around the glass.

Kristpher Powers also check with your damaged furniture places and also liquid dated places or your second hand places such as habitat for humanity. Also do what i did i got out the phone book and in the yellow pages i went threw every page with my finger and called every one i seen that would have mirrors, glass, windows also found construction / remodeling companys that do windows and asked for there old windows. This way with the construction dumpsters they pay by the ton and i am saving them couple dollars in weight from each window pane

Also with those windows that have the wood framing around them i get couple of the homeless people and give them couple dollars and also get couple people that are disabled on social security supplement income ( SSI ) give them couple dollars to take the wood frame off the glass. You will be surprised at things how these people will do for couple of dollars

[Tony Lenkic]

Junior,

Many of sign shops use acrylic as a base substrate in their application. Often they would have off cuts laying around that they would readily give away. Contact local shops and see if you can get some samples.
They may use your services to laser cut some shapes and letters so possible future sales as well.

[Junior hall]

Thanks for the idea tony i sure will do this friday morning

[Dave Sheldrake]

Glass doors that are designed for use under a specified height from floor level are either tempered or toughened (same for windows) (or sometimes both (bomb glass), some also have coatings that will affect the engraving.

If you are on about float glass then that can be engraved but don't count on getting very good results

[Rich Harman]

Kristopher Powers I would buy it from either Lowes or Home Depot



Can you get cast acrylic at Lowes or Home Depot? I think all they have is extruded which does not engrave nearly as nicely as cast - does anyone have good success engraving extruded?.

[Bill George]

You want cast acrylic and its not at Lowes or Home Depot. Glass, fine can you cut it without problems? I don't think you can cut tempered glass.

[walter hofmann]

I use mostly " acrylite 2.5mm" I get them for free from my local ACE hardware store they have every week quite a lot of cutoffs and I get them for free.
ones in a while I give the girls something I make for there kids . they love it and they even hold the scrap pieces for me.
I like to give because little gifts hold the friendship.

here are a sample







greetings
waltfl

[Ross Moshinsky]

The simple answer is acrylic. I especially recommend it for you Junior. Glass/crystal is one of the trickiest materials to engrave well. If you don't have your settings dialed in, you'll get chipping and it's tricky to engrave large solid spaces and have it look right. Acrylic on the other hand is one of the easiest materials to engrave and you can cut it with minimal effort. To engrave text, acrylic is really easy. To engrave a processed image, it's just a bit more work. The material is consistent and you don't have to worry about tweaking your settings every time you get another piece of cast acrylic.

I would absolutely recommend you focus on acrylic. If you look around, you can get free acrylic scraps too. Even if you have to pay $10 for a sheet of cast acrylic, it's still worth it.

[Junior hall]

I WILL try to get me a piece of acrylic or even acrylite and also check with some of the sign shops around here to see about there scraps. I will also try Ace Hardware.

I figured with the glass as i can get all i wanted it was a good idea. I have done 4 pieces of glass size 10x10 one of 2 bucks walking out of the woods to a stream for my uncle and a humming bird for my aunt also several dog breeds and they all turned out good . I will try to get some one with a camera to take pictures for to post...

Once again thanks for all your help and great information.. Thank you again

[Rich Harman]

I WILL try to get me a piece of acrylic or even acrylite and also check with some of the sign shops around here to see about there scraps. I will also try Ace Hardware.

Acrylite is just a brand, they make acrylic products. There is a big difference between extruded (like you get at a hardware store) and cast acrylic in the way it engraves - strength too. So if you go and get some free stuff that is extruded, it won't engrave nearly as nicely as it should, you may be disappointed in the results and decide you'd rather work with glass. On the other hand if you try some cast acrylic your decision will likely be the opposite.

[Junior hall]

Thanks Rich Harman i should take my butt to bed only had 1hour 43 minutes of sleep I will get cast acrylic thanks aalll