Are there any presets, or is there any advise for engraving a Light Guide Plate pattern into acrylic? I have a sheet of light guide acrylic for Inventables, but need to use it to make a light box (Light Guide Acrylic Sheet – Inventables, Inc.)
I am a complete novice to laser cutting/engraving. I just joined a maker space and they have an OMTech laser cutter and they use LightBurn as the software. But this is all I know about the setup.
Everybody wants that magic information that will avoid having to run Material Tests, but … the results depend on the specific laser / material / pattern / lighting, so plan to burn up some of that precious material finding out how to use the rest.
With that in mind, edge-lit acrylic is just acrylic with dust in it, so whatever settings the Makerspace folks use for ordinary acrylic should work reasonably well.
Where did I mention that I wouldn’t or didn’t want to run a material test? I just want to know if there are any presets for dot patterns (when other applications like Lasercad appear to offer them). A simple “no” could have answered my question.
This question was not in the original paragraph. You might look at the Array Tool in Lightburn. Make one tiny circle (because a laser dot is really tiny) and turn it into a gazillion.
Agreed with above. Initial post simply mentions pattern presets. Many way to interpret that and most new users are indeed looking for magic numbers for cut/engrave settings.
Based on the follow-up…Are you trying to do a dithered image engraving? “Cell” (size , spacing, interval, etc) may be the term you’re looking for.
I make a lot of templates & signs like this. I have made heaps of edge-lit night lights for nurseries a children’s bedrooms. I have a 130 watt laser and I set the fill to 350 mm/s & power at 8.5% with the air assist off. You want the laser in focus. I always mirror engrave so the image is on the back side of the acrylic.