I am having a strange issue with some acrylic engraving I have done. It looks like oil spots but it’s not. I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen and what, if anything, can be done about it. I’ve attached a pic
of the issue.
of the issue.
I had a similar issue using the engraver. It looks like material bunched up under the point of the engraver & prevented it from making as deep a groove. Dust collection helped.
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It does appear, as Tod mentions, the engraver is not biting into the work successfully in those areas. However it seems to do OK just before enter this regions so something must be different about the surface there. I’d try a test after wiping the surface down with alcohol in case there is some “oil”, perhaps as innocuous as from fingers.
Yeah, I did a rather aggressive wipe with alcohol and with acetone, to no affect. And no, the acetone does not seem to melt the acrylic. I did a test piece first. This is really odd.
I would think an air assist system might be worth a try when engraving. Might provide a bit more force to remove particles.
The real frustrating part is that this is so random. It’s almost like there are places in the acrylic that are different density. I did another version of this that came out perfectly, although 1/8” off center. Which is why I did this run. Always something…
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I have had this issue while laser etching acrylic as well. I had a nice little demo piece that demonstrated that there are differing densities throughout a section of 1/2" acrylic. There was an obvious “density wave” along the Y axis.
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Are you using cast or extruded acrylic? Cast acrylic costs more but according to one source on the internet, “Cast acrylic is the holy grail for laser cutting, laser engraving CNC machining and thermoforming applications.”
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