Are you struggling to get clean results with your acrylic laser cut projects? Whether you’re in need of a quick solution or want to nail your very first laser cut acrylic project, you’re in the right place. I’ll share five useful tips and tricks I’ve picked up while working with acrylic to help you achieve near-perfect results and improve your future projects.
Tips & Tricks for Getting Clean Laser Cut Acrylic Projects
1. Paper Mask Your Projects
To mask, or not to mask, that is the question. I highly recommend keeping the masking on your acrylic sheets when laser cutting and engraving. That is, of course, only when the acrylic comes with a paper masking. I do not recommend leaving any plastic masking on your acrylic. When you laser cut with a paper masking, you significantly reduce the risk of potential scratches caused by your machine’s baseplate or honeycomb. You also lessen the chance of burn marks happening along the edges of your cuts.
2. Dawn: Tough on Grease, Yet Gentle on Acrylic?
After laser cutting or engraving acrylic, you might find that your cut piece is now riddled with fingerprints, or even worse, tacky with adhesive residue from its masking. Using a small drop of liquid dish soap and a microfiber cloth is great for gently removing oils and fingerprints—and yes, that pesky masking residue!
3. Wet Sand Your Way to Smooth Edges
Are you finding that your laser cut acrylic is a little rough around the edges? The edges may be less than ideal due to the acrylic and laser type you’re using. A simple way you can smooth out unclean edges and remove possible bubbling is by wet sanding your acrylic. Wetting both your laser cut acrylic piece and a sandpaper around 800 grit, you can buff away rough edges to a smooth finish. Note, you don’t want to sand the face of your acrylic as it will remove its coating and sheen. This technique is only ideal for the edges or unseen backing of your pieces, if necessary.
After sanding, you can rub a very small amount of mineral oil with a microfiber cloth to polish your piece and bring back some of that shine.
4. Avoid Seeping Glue and Use 3M Adhesive
When working with acrylic, you’ll likely need to attach it to another material. My go-to for adhering materials together is typically CA glue. However, if you’re working with small pieces of acrylic, it can be tough to use glue without it seeping around the edges. A way to avoid this is by affixing 3M adhesive sheets to the back of your entire acrylic piece before laser cutting. Once your piece is cut, you can remove the plastic backing. Voila! You’ve got yourself a self-adhesive acrylic piece to stick anywhere you’d like.
5. Let Your Acrylic Breathe with a Honeycomb
I personally own an xTool riser and honeycomb baseplate and I highly recommend it for working with acrylic. Having a honeycomb baseplate reduces the risk of laser flashbacks, which can occur when your laser moves through the acrylic and “flashes back”, causing nicks or other blemishes to happen on the underside of your acrylic sheet.
At the very least, raising your acrylic sheet up with triangular prisms can help to provide a cleaner and less melted result by allowing air to circulate and minimize the amount of heat trapped underneath it. The combination of using both a honeycomb and triangular prisms, can dramatically improve your laser cut.
Final Thoughts
I hope this list of tips and tricks for laser cutting acrylic will help you to master this material and make amazing projects. Have questions or a recommended tip for laser cutting acrylic? Reach out on social—I’d love to hear it!
