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Thread: Cutting Acrylic Results in Sticky Edges

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    Jit, if you can laser cut thru 1/8" thick Rowmark black/clear Slicker in one pass and leave no sticky edge, I'll give you a dollar...
    You are not going to get rich with that bet Kev!

    And cast acrylics, particularly old stock, can edge-craze when hit with alcohol.
    Maybe I have it backwards, but I thought cast didn't craze with dna, actually any solvent/petroleum based product, where extruded does.

  2. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Gary Hair View Post
    I thought cast didn't craze with dna, actually any solvent/petroleum based product, where extruded does.
    Both will craze. I've never seen any acrylics that wouldn't craze after lasering. If there is one, I'd like to know it. I just took cast last week and wiped it with DNA and Iso and it crazed the same amount from both. I always thought cast didn't craze much either, but it does, and in a bad way. Trust me. I have a dumpster bottom full of crazed cast acrylic parts.
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  3. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    Extruded (high impact) acrylic will ALWAYS leave sticky edges. Cast acrylic burns much cleaner.

    What will help remove the sticky is denatured alcohol, turpentine or naptha. Those won't hurt the plastic, and I've found alcohol to work best. Xylene and acetone can attack the plastic, so avoid those...

    Last summer I had a large job of a zillion small labels made from 1/8" thick Rowmark. I found that starting with a transfer-taped surface (remove the original plastic sheathing) and cutting lightly enough that it took at least 5 passes resulted in very little sticky residue, to the point it wasn't necessary to try and clean it up. And while it sounds like a lot of time to cut something 5 or 6 times, it was still better than the time spent cleaning goo!

    Thank you! I tried using alcohol, which didn't work. I ordered a completely different type of acrylic, which has REALLY seemed to help though!!!! I was using acrylic that melts with heat which resulted in sticky edges I couldn't get rid of!!

  4. #19
    Never had a sticky edge using cast, but using the name tag laminated sheets from laser bit yes ! I normally wipe very hard and fast with 70% Alcohol. Place a paper towel or cloth ( I made a little fixture to hold the paper down) wiping the part on the cloth in a forward - backward motion. Now using this same method on black acrylic the alcohol & hot acrylic has some sorta reaction leaving a white residue behind... Which is very hard to get off. So I'm not sure, but whatever they're adding to lower the cost or add flexibility is why we're seeing the melted jelly edge in my opinion. I've ran tons acrylic parts, but only notice it on some brands. My wiping method also helps with the jagged wall finish, smooths it out !

  5. #20
    In my case cast is more foregiving as far as crazing. You can aneal you plastics so it does not craze

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