What is the name of this plastic and is it best to carve, laser etc?

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20180102_1033122560Ă—1440 1.23 MB

Hello,
I need to make some simple placards like this. I was wondering what is the name of this plastic. Its some plastic laminent it seams. NOt sure if its best to do it with a 6W laser or with a bit?

Thanks in advance.

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I worked in a hospital print shop in high school and used the pantograph-style machine to make these, I am not sure if the material was HDPE back then, but the Inventables store has HDPE available with black-on-white:

I doubt the laser would work well with this, and it’s likely to produce toxic fumes, your best bet is a very small engraving bit.

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Ahh, nice. Looks like that one there is textured though.

I was lookingat this video and it seams like they are able to cut that with laser. Fast fwd to 5min mark. :

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This is what I buy from mmc to make labels at work McMaster-Carr

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Sweet, thanks! How do you cut it? V bit then carve the edges with another bit?

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I use a 60deg vbit .125" diam. .02" deep to engrave and the same bit .061" deep to cut it out… the vbit gives it a nice beveled edge I also just use double sided masking tape from mmc to hold it down

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Since this is an x-Carve forum I assumed your question was in regard to the lasers available for the XC (e.g. JTech Photonics), the Trotec speedy series are CO2 lasers, and likely a 60W in the video example.

I can’t speak to how well the Jtech laser would engrave HDPE, perhaps someone who uses one regularly can comment…

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There is a 6W laser on the market i noticed and ive seen videos of it etching steel. Wondering if that would be able to cut a small 1/8" abs plastic sign like in the video with a few passes being that i saw it cut wood with a few passes.

Maybe ill just try a regular bit at first, if that works then great. Don thave my x carve yet, its in the mail. Just asking questions .

THanks

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Do your research on the 6W here, I am fairly certain there was a discussion about it some time ago and Jay from JTech provided the details behind why the 6W isn’t truly a 6W (technical limitations, and mis-representation of specs on the cheaper Chinese knock-offs) …

I HIGHLY recommend the Jtech product, @JTechPhotonics has done a great job supporting the XCarve community.

also… I"m just a happy customer, I have no other affiliation w\ JTech

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Ive found some info on laser and it seams to be more involved than what I thought for engraving/cutting on ABS, HDPE

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My 150w Laser will cut UHMWbut it turns into a puddle and does not come out clean in any way shape or form, it just melts all together. I tried several settings with no prevail. I do not think that it can be Cut with a laser unless it is an extremely high powered laser. As to engraving I believe this will be the same result. It took multiple passes to get through one color layer of the 3-color blanks sold by Inventables.

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