I am new and wanting to cut out my own stencil line. I am using glossed 10 mil Mylar and can’t seem to get the right cuts. Who in here uses Mylar and could help me out please?
Is that material transparent? If it is visible laser you should have some dificultes cutting it.
Hi.
^This.
Some kind of an indirect method might work, but unless someone who has done the research chimes in, the fastest way is to experiment.
Mylar -just like most of the construction materials- can also vary a lot depending on the intended application, so a method that works with some specific sheet of mylar, may not work with another.
The visible spectrum lasers are a bit finicky that way.
We did a bit of experimenting with raster-mask a while back with a friend of mine, but even that didn’t work out satisfactorily so we moved on to other things to experiment with 
.
Regards,
Sam
Sorry for my late reply.
I know what you mean. I have a topic where I am trying to engrave clear polystyrene (kind of acrylic). So I am doing some experimentation as well. Right now I use tempera paint (that was unknown to me) as a mask. I have to apply it with a HVLP spay gun to achieve a even layer.
As the Mylar as so thin and tempera paint is so easy to remove (running water from the tap or with a small brush) it might work for you… 
If you´re curious about my findings…
https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/discovering-how-to-engrave-transparent-acrylic-polystyrene-with-a-diode-laser/100242/22
Hi.
No problem .
I saw that thread of Yours, and when it’s time to experiment with the raster-mask again, we will probably try something like that.
The (near)IR xTool head worked better, but even with that the contrast of the markings weren’t high enough.
That was only a “what if” type of an idea though, the main reason for the experiments was to evaporate the wax on mimeograph-/gestetner stencils with the “blue” laser.
That test actually worked out rather well for a first try.
Regards,
Sam
The best solution for what you want (to cut or engrave clear material) from what I’ve seen should be UV laser.
CO2 also seems to work but I believe it is much more expensive. Not sure yet.
There is no shortage of people out there who have already gone through the same and who already have an idea formed.
In my topic I’m just trying to find the best blue laser engraving settings.