I did some searching and didn’t find too much on this. I want to make a plaque for my brother. I haven’t done two-tone acrylic before and want it to look good. With the fine lines I have chosen, it looked like my 15 degree bit would give the best results. Is there any suggestion on cut settings, final cut depth, etc? This will be outside by a tree we’re planting, so is acrylic even the way to go? Right now, it has the cut settings (feed rate-100 in/min, plunge rate-9 in/min, depth per pass-.01 in), it shows a 9+ hour carve. Not sure what I can change or if I have way off settings. All cuts are .06" final depth.
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A lot will depend on the thickness of the acrylic layers.
If the top layer of your acrylic is 0.125" (1/8th"), then your carve will not be deep enough to expose the center layer.
I use V carve mostly, and it has the ability to start a cut at a specific depth, which i set the start depth to the thickness of the top layer. This basically cuts into but ignores the top layer for final depth, allowing the cut to “start” at the top of the center layer.
Doing it this way allows fine lines like script text to be exposed in the second layer when cutting with a v bit.
I do understand how it works, but that seemed like too long of a carve. And I would be using the black on gold two tone acrylic from inventables
9hrs for that seems excessive.
.01" Depth per pass on a .06" deep carve = a lot of path lines especially on the larger letters.
You might be able to go full depth in one pass on all the finer lettering? Or use a slightly wider angle bit to achieve that?
i can chnage the depth per pass, but it wouldn’t knock off too much time. i’ve tried a simulated redner if i used a 60 degree bit, almost nothing on the bottom section or the border comes trough
If you dont mind sharing the file we can play with the settings and see what we come up with 
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i think i did that right haha
I opened up your file and you have your Depth Per Pass at .01 inches and the blade width at .5mm, I changed the depth per pass to .06 inches and the blade with to .01 inches and it was less than 3 hours.
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3 hours still seems so long for something fairly simple. as for the bit, it’s the bit i figured i would need to make the more detailed cuts.
Yes it does sound like a long time, I changed the bit to a 60 degree bit and it says 56 minutes to cut. I’m still using Easel so I don’t know much about the angle of bits. Try cutting the job on a scrap piece using the 60 degree bit setting and see how it comes out.
Russell
I’ve done acrylic up to 300 IPM with my DeWalt set at 1600RPM (lowest setting, 1).
Concur with the above recommendation of trying on scrap (even wood) to make sure the detail shows.
Thanks, i changes the IMP to 250 and will try on something laying around the shop.
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Nic, I was going to do something similar but the acrylic never quite looked sharp enough on my practice. Have you considered doing an epoxy faux marble then carve the image and then put down an epoxy inlay? I know these guys are all over the internet but they had a great video showing the process, Stonecoat Countertops. Good luck.
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not really, no. it’s a good idea, but time won’t let me do something like that now. i made it last night, not what i wanted it to be, but it was my fault. i didn’t surface the wood like i usually do, so there were a couple shallow spots. i’ll remake it later, but it’s needed for this weekend when we plant the tree.
I would be very curious if anyone has had luck using Easel to V carve the two tone acrylic?
Like AlAmantea said you need a start depth unless that top layer is very thin.
I agree, I was hoping to use the black on gold for this project. But the information on the material was pretty limited. I didn’t want to go too deep not did I want to use an unnecessarily wide bit.
