When I ran small scale engraving tests, the engraving on this acrylic came out great. But when I did the larger parts there were tons of bubbles and crap at the edges of the engraving that ruined the look. Any thoughts what this could be? It Looks as if there was like water in the material that exploded as the laser went through it or something (I don’t believe this is the issue but that’s what the look reminds me of)
I have attached a picture of the small scale and the large scale engraving. Same material, same settings, very different results
Typically, cast acrylic will generate not-so-frosted engraving, while extruded acrylic gets frosty. I can see a digit behind the smaller engraving, which appears to be clearer.
Yeah the smaller engraving is much much better much. It was literally cut out of the exact same parent sheet as the bigger engraving using the exact same settings, so I’m surprised one was so much better than the other. The small one is consistently good and the big one is consistently bad. Is it just a random bad pocket in the material?
But not the exact same area. This implies maybe the laser can reach higher speeds with the larger design. Not a CO2 or fiber laser guy, but I would try reducing the power or increasing the speed.