Cutting Acrylic Results in Sticky Edges

[Abby Cook]

I am trying to cut acrylic that is super detailed oriented on a Trotec Speedy 400, but it has super sticky edges! I have the following settings already set: Power25 Speed.15 and 10,000hz/ppi with air assist off. Wiping down with solution and masking tape is not an option here. Any thoughts??? Thanks in advance :)

[Jerome Stanek]

I always cut acrylic with the air on

[Abby Cook]

I had the air on my first try, but then I read somewhere to try with it off. What settings do you use to cut your acrylic?

[Rich Harman]

The only sticky edges that I have gotten are with high impact acrylic. There was noting I could do to eliminate them.

[Abby Cook]

Do you happen to know what kind of acrylic you are using? I'm using Duets Laser Tactiles. Should I be using a different kind of acrylic/plastic for smoother edges? Thank You for your input!!

[Kev Williams]

Extruded (high impact) acrylic will ALWAYS leave sticky edges. Cast acrylic burns much cleaner.

What will help remove the sticky is denatured alcohol, turpentine or naptha. Those won't hurt the plastic, and I've found alcohol to work best. Xylene and acetone can attack the plastic, so avoid those...

Last summer I had a large job of a zillion small labels made from 1/8" thick Rowmark. I found that starting with a transfer-taped surface (remove the original plastic sheathing) and cutting lightly enough that it took at least 5 passes resulted in very little sticky residue, to the point it wasn't necessary to try and clean it up. And while it sounds like a lot of time to cut something 5 or 6 times, it was still better than the time spent cleaning goo!

[Jack Clague]

What thickness is the acrylic & what wattage is your unit? I cut 3mm at 1000hz and have a super clean and very rarely if ever have sticky residue, don't recall my settings but i can check tonight for you
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[Lee DeRaud]

The only time I've ever had sticky edges after cutting any kind of plastic is with the flexible laminated label stuff.

Clear extruded from Home Depot, and several dozen different colors of both cast and extruded all work fine. No air assist, and the only thing transfer-tape masking brings to the process is keeping flashback marks off the surface touching the honeycomb. (I can only imagine that cutting with the protective plastic film still on would be seriously messy though.)

[Jack Clague]

The only time I've ever had sticky edges after cutting any kind of plastic is with the flexible laminated label stuff.

Clear extruded from Home Depot, and several dozen different colors of both cast and extruded all work fine. No air assist, and the only thing transfer-tape masking brings to the process is keeping flashback marks off the surface touching the honeycomb. (I can only imagine that cutting with the protective plastic film still on would be seriously messy though.)

Same experiences here, the laminates, like trolase and such I usually get a slight sticky edge to the cutting, but some IPA does the trick to reduce the stickyness

[Rich Harman]

Extruded (high impact) acrylic will ALWAYS leave sticky edges. Cast acrylic burns much cleaner.

I've never experienced sticky edges on extruded acrylic. The high impact stuff I used, which I forget what it was called, was nothing like the standard extruded acrylic. You could almost bend it back upon itself before it would break. Wasn't even remotely brittle like the cheap extruded stuff.

[Doug Griffith]

High impact, or rubber modified as it's sometimes called, has always left sticky edges for me. It also stinks pretty bad when cutting.

[Graham Facer]

I find it can vary from brand to brand. I have a plexiglas brand extruded that is fairly sticky and some imported stuff that is less so. But never so sticky as to stop using it. I am pretty sure the tack goes away after a while because I only notice it right after cutting, and never when handling offcuts/remnants later.

[Jiten Patel]

It shouldn't be leaving sticky edges regardless if it is extruded or cast. Cast in my opinion has a cleaner finish. I wouldn't use alcohol or similar on extruded as you can get cracks (which can occur weeks later). What thickness are you cutting and what power do you have? 0.15 seems really slow and can cause re-melt. We use 80-100% power, 1 speed, 10-15000 HZ with some correction of around 15 or 20. air assist on. We have an 80w.

[Kev Williams]

Jit, if you can laser cut thru 1/8" thick Rowmark black/clear Slicker in one pass and leave no sticky edge, I'll give you a dollar... :)

As for sticky edges on ANY extruded plastics, I was pretty much referring to engraving plastics, sorry.

And cast acrylics, particularly old stock, can edge-craze when hit with alcohol. Pic is a logo for our boat I cut out of some 15+ year old cast acrylic mirror awhile back. Half the masking goo stayed behind when I removed it, and when I tried to clean it with DNA, the edges immediately turned to garbage... Never had this happen with Rowmark or any other extruded plastics I've laser cut.

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[Paul Phillips]

I've found that the edges usually dry out in a day or two, especially with the engravers plastic, I use Rowmark brand.

[Gary Hair]

Jit, if you can laser cut thru 1/8" thick Rowmark black/clear Slicker in one pass and leave no sticky edge, I'll give you a dollar... :)
You are not going to get rich with that bet Kev!



And cast acrylics, particularly old stock, can edge-craze when hit with alcohol.

Maybe I have it backwards, but I thought cast didn't craze with dna, actually any solvent/petroleum based product, where extruded does.

[Scott Shepherd]

I thought cast didn't craze with dna, actually any solvent/petroleum based product, where extruded does.

Both will craze. I've never seen any acrylics that wouldn't craze after lasering. If there is one, I'd like to know it. I just took cast last week and wiped it with DNA and Iso and it crazed the same amount from both. I always thought cast didn't craze much either, but it does, and in a bad way. Trust me. I have a dumpster bottom full of crazed cast acrylic parts.

[Abby Cook]

Extruded (high impact) acrylic will ALWAYS leave sticky edges. Cast acrylic burns much cleaner.

What will help remove the sticky is denatured alcohol, turpentine or naptha. Those won't hurt the plastic, and I've found alcohol to work best. Xylene and acetone can attack the plastic, so avoid those...

Last summer I had a large job of a zillion small labels made from 1/8" thick Rowmark. I found that starting with a transfer-taped surface (remove the original plastic sheathing) and cutting lightly enough that it took at least 5 passes resulted in very little sticky residue, to the point it wasn't necessary to try and clean it up. And while it sounds like a lot of time to cut something 5 or 6 times, it was still better than the time spent cleaning goo!


Thank you! I tried using alcohol, which didn't work. I ordered a completely different type of acrylic, which has REALLY seemed to help though!!!! I was using acrylic that melts with heat which resulted in sticky edges I couldn't get rid of!!

[chris szlachetka]

Never had a sticky edge using cast, but using the name tag laminated sheets from laser bit yes ! I normally wipe very hard and fast with 70% Alcohol. Place a paper towel or cloth ( I made a little fixture to hold the paper down) wiping the part on the cloth in a forward - backward motion. Now using this same method on black acrylic the alcohol & hot acrylic has some sorta reaction leaving a white residue behind... Which is very hard to get off. So I'm not sure, but whatever they're adding to lower the cost or add flexibility is why we're seeing the melted jelly edge in my opinion. I've ran tons acrylic parts, but only notice it on some brands. My wiping method also helps with the jagged wall finish, smooths it out ! :)

[Clark Pace]

In my case cast is more foregiving as far as crazing. You can aneal you plastics so it does not craze