Anyone played with Acryla Thins?

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

I have some material called Acryla Thins but have no documentation on settings for raster and vector. I thought I would ask to see if anyone had any suggestions.

And does it have to painted and sanded after? or is there contrasting color?

Thanks,
Jessica Houghton
35w Epilog

[Martin Boekers]

They were supposed to send info to me too when I bought it. I played with it a bit then got busy so didn't get a chance to do much. It seems like a nice product and cheaper than plastic stuff. The engraving on the samples I did were sharp and crisp. It had a brownish color engrave, I tried some acrylic fill, but wasn't happy with it. I do see potential at my shop though for this. I did get some of the thicker plaques to which will engrave nicely like Corian. I can see using "thins" for plates when the gold and silver clashes with the color of the statues. I got this from PDU a while back when the had sample pieces on sale.

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Thanks Martin.
I was afraid the fill process would be too much trouble. I have a piece of gray and want to etch on it and it be black! I guess you can't always get what you want.

How did it cut?

[Martin Boekers]

It seems it cuts well, basically it's similar to Formica from what I understand. It is quite a bit cheaper than the plastic and has a higher perceived value. They show it with fills so it should work just haven't had a chance to really work with it. I have about 10 pieces, in a variety of colors and marbles. I would contact PDU and see what their recommendations are for filling. Let me know if you find something that works!

[Ross Moshinsky]

You won't be able to make any money with it with sub 40w. Frankly, I think you need 60w+ to make any money with it. With our 30W machine to engrave, it was two slow passes to get a dark mark. It was very slow to cut as well.

The cost of the material may be fairly reasonable, but I didn't see it possible to make money with vs the standard materials.

[Martin Boekers]

We always have a cutter to trim plates.... if you have to "die cut" try it first. at $5 a sheet even if it takes 2 passes it's much cheaper than IPI or Rowmark
I'd give it a shot.... If you like it and see potential, it's up to you to see if it fits your market. 8x10 (about $1.50) Comp plaque 9"x12" ($1.50) Yes... I think you can make money...

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

I contacted my rep and I was given suggested speed and power settings based on a 40 watt epilog helix.

Raster: 50s/80p. For best results it is recommended to do two passes.
Vector: 20s/100p/300 frequency. Paper mask can be used to avoid scorching if needed.
Optional: If you would like the engraved area to be a darker or more uniformed black, you can use a black leather dye / scuff cover / shoe polish to darken the engraved areas. Paper mask is not usually necessary because of the non-porous and stain resistant surface of AcrylaThins.

I will be playing with this and will see what I think and will report back with pictures and my humble opinion of the product. Thank you for your answers.

[Chuck Lopez]

Try going to PDU and accessing DEALER ALLIANCE. I was at a show here in AZ this past weekend and Barbara said there were fact and instruction sheets for the AcrylaStone and AcrylaThins they now offer. Very impressive material. I ordered a sample pack and will be testing next week.

[Ross Moshinsky]

It is an impressive material. It's just not feasible to make money with on a sub 60W machine. It cuts slowly and was a mess and engraving was slow and took a minimum of 2 passes at high DPI. I bought 3-4 sheets of it to play with and had to give up after a 2-3 hours of testing. The best result I could come up with is the grey looking material at lower power would engrave a white color.

If it worked well, I would say so. We prefer working with sheet stock. This stuff does not hit the mark for lower power lasers.

[Lynn Misanti]

Hi, I am new to this board and found it because of my search for information on engraving AcrylaThins.

My boss really wants to be able to offer this on a regular basis but currently it takes us forever to do one with the process we are using. We use clear contact paper over the top before engraving. It is engraved 2x at the steel setting. Then it is painted with outdoor acrylic paint. Once that dries, we peel the contact paper off. This is very time consuming.

Is there a better way to do this? I have tried to reach out to AcrylaStone but they have not responded to my email. I saw mention of the wattage making a difference as well.

Here are my specs:
Engraving program: GravoStyle5
Lasers:
NewHermes Incorporated Vanguard Laser 2001 - 25 watts
Gravograph LS800 - 30 watts
Rotary:
GravoGraph GT M40 DV

[Keith Bielat]

Briefly gave it a shot with a few samples I received from PDU. They gave me this sheet with recommended settings and told me they can fill with shoe polish.
I did like how you can get the halftone look, and I personally used Rub N Buff to get a color fill, although it did work, it took me longer than I would like to get the quality look I wanted.
If the images are unreadable I can put it into pdf for anyone who might want a copy.
2013_11_13_11_34_150001.jpg2013_11_13_11_34_150003.jpg

[Ross Moshinsky]

Hi, I am new to this board and found it because of my search for information on engraving AcrylaThins.

My boss really wants to be able to offer this on a regular basis but currently it takes us forever to do one with the process we are using. We use clear contact paper over the top before engraving. It is engraved 2x at the steel setting. Then it is painted with outdoor acrylic paint. Once that dries, we peel the contact paper off. This is very time consuming.

Is there a better way to do this? I have tried to reach out to AcrylaStone but they have not responded to my email. I saw mention of the wattage making a difference as well.

Here are my specs:
Engraving program: GravoStyle5
Lasers:
NewHermes Incorporated Vanguard Laser 2001 - 25 watts
Gravograph LS800 - 30 watts
Rotary:
GravoGraph GT M40 DV

The answer is no. As I mentioned above, you need a higher wattage laser to make this a reasonable product to offer. I tested the material again about a month ago, a different style (oak I believe it was) and it was better than some of the others, but it's still too time consuming to make a profit from. You need to charge 2-3x the price you'd charge for acrylic/steel/aluminum and who is going to do that?

If I had a 60w+ laser, I'd offer this product. Anything less than that and it's just not worth it.

[Lynn Misanti]

Thank you for the info sheet. It looks hopeless but we are trying.

[Lynn Misanti]

We have a client who really wants the granite one but it seems to be more work than it is worth. As we are part of a franchise, we cannot change the prices to reflect the time put into the item. The base price being $35 for an 8x10 plaque with this material and then our posted engraving cost.