Laser Materials: Working with Acrylic

Pros:

Working with acrylic is fun because it comes in a wide variety of colors, include transparent, clear or even a mirror. It's easy to work with because it is extremely flat and consistent. Since it's a manufactured product, the thickness and dimensions are much more precise than other materials. It also often comes with a layer of protective paper on one or both sides, which can help reduce laser burn marks.

Clear acrylic is amazing because you can illuminate it with LED lights and any etched patterns will glow.

Cons:

First of all, acrylic, as a plastic doesn't feel as nice as wood, and can come off as cheap. Secondly, acrylic is trickier to glue than most materials. You don't use a traditional glue, but rather a quick-drying solvent which melts the two pieces of acrylic together.

Acrylic is easily scratched. You'll need to be careful of dust, paper towels and rough handling.

Alcohol is like kryptonite for acrylic, because it causes it to 'craze.' It does this by diffusing into the surface and expanding, causing cracks.

Gluing

There are actually two types of acrylic glue. First is the free-flowing type, called Acrylic Solvent Cement, which I find difficult to work with. It flows like water, and you apply a thin stream along a joint. This chemically melts both sides and then evaporates, leaving both pieces bonded together. If you're not careful with this stuff, it will badly mar the surface of any acrylic it touches. This is especially bad when using clear acrylic.

The second type of glue, Medium Bodied Acrylic Cement , is applied more like traditional glue. It's composed of ground up bits of acrylic mixed with solvent. This makes a thick goop which you can squeeze out of a tube. It will still mar your surface, but is easier to keep control of. It does leave behind thin strings when you pull it away, similar to melted cheese, but very thin.

Cleaning and Polishing

It's important to be careful cleaning acrylic to prevent scratches and cracks. Paper towels or any kind of paper-based cleaning cloth can leave scratches. I prefer to use microfiber cleaning cloth and a plastic cleaning solution like NOVUS Plastic Clean and Shine.

Alcohol based cleaners like Windex will craze the surface of your acrylic. It is especially devastating to glued joints. I recently made an acrylic toothbrush holder, that was glued with the thicker acrylic cement. Our cleaner accidentally used an alcohol based cleaner on it, and the glued joints just came apart.

Scratches can be dealt with by using a series of polishing compounds like NOVUS Plastic Polish Kit. This has 2 progressively finer polishing compounds which can get out even significant scratches. It's not a quick process, so it's obviously much better to avoid scratches in the first place.

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