Hello everyone I am a new member and I am beginning to move my first steps in the Lightburn world, which I use on a Mecpow x3 pro 10W diode laser.
Being a drummer, I would like to make a clock on plexiglass, like the one shown in the picture; in particular I would like to color in black the parts that in the drawing are black, while the white ones I would like to leave them transparent and the gray ones I would like to pass them opaque.
In your opinion, how should I proceed–paint a transparent plexiglass black so that only the white and gray parts will be indicated? I have read, however, that diode lasers cannot process clear plexiglass, if that is true how do I cut the clear plexiglass and make it matte in the gray parts?
I hope I have explained myself well. Thank you very much and bye
Hi Pietro
I think I would get the plexiglass cut to size.
Be able to put it on the curting deck and be able to remove and put back again exactly in place.
Engrave only the grey area’s to opaque.
Remove plexiglass from cutting deck and spray black.
Put back on cutting deck exactly.
Engrave black areas.
Clear areas are not on the engrave so will not be effected.
Wash off paint.
This is my best guess, off the top of my head!
Oh…ps
Use trace image to include/exclude area’s.
Hi Pete and Pietro,
Thanks for the tips, Pete, that’s a smart idea.
I was wondering, when you spray the black paint, do you use any masking tape or film first, or just spray straight onto the plexiglass? And for making the grey parts opaque, does anyone know good settings for a 10W diode laser?
I’d like to try this too. Thanks!
Simply, a visible light laser cannot cut acrylic as it’s normally clear. Just like glass the emf or beam goes through it with no absorption by the material.
Once you start adding some type of color the diode can become more effective, such as with black acrylic. Any color the same color as your diodes beam or white, will be difficult if not impossible to cut. If it can’t cut it, it can’t do a very good job of engraving.
Adding color to acrylic is similar as the other indirect methods, such as using some type of dark coating, tape, the laser heats up the coating and that heat damages the acrylic. Since it goes through the acrylic, you could put some black paper under clear acrylic… this would mark the back side.
Normally they do not use paint on acrylic, as it’s is difficult to remove.
In your profile I see a laser diode machine.
If this is the machine you want to do all the work with, take into consideration what @jkwilborn started saying.
I have to cut the plexiglass with a router and then not do the engraving. In my case, I don’t want any paint to remain, so I used tempera paint, which comes off simply with tap water.
If you want the paint to stay, I use another type of paint for that purpose.
If I had a machine capable of cutting plexiglass, after doing material tests to evaluate the ideal cutting and engraving settings, I would paint the plexiglass, engrave it with the ideal settings obtained on painted plexiglass, and finally cut it.
Here I leave my “journey” about my learning with polystyrene, which is identical to plexiglass.