Lasering acrylic glass gnomes

07/Feb/2018

We recently laser-cut little acrylic elves for a daycare center in Munich. These were used as tree decorations. Different colors were used.

Dear readers,

The youngest among us also benefited from this assignment, as we were recently allowed to work for the gnome academy little gnomes out of acrylic glass (see photos to browse through!). The figures were to serve as tree decorations and at the same time withstand "special treatment" by children's hands in case of doubt.

Print on 5 mm acrylic glass

The customer therefore wanted acrylic glass with a certain thickness. We therefore opted for a thickness of 5 mm, as this does not appear bulky and heavy, but is light and stable. We printed the acrylic sheets with different colors on the back and then sent them to be lasered.

Precise laser adjustment required

When lasering, it was important to find the correct settings for the material. On the one hand, the laser had to make it through 5 mm acrylic glass. On the other hand, we didn't want too much heat to hit the material at the small hole for the suspension, as this would have melted the material and removed the paint. So we chose a higher heat level for cutting out the entire figure than for the small holes, which worked wonderfully (see photos). Particularly interesting: the full-surface homogeneous print on the back made the gnomes look as if they had been cut from solid-colored acrylic.

"Polished" acrylic edge through lasering

There were also two reasons why we opted for lasering. Firstly, the cutter head of our large cutter has a diameter of 4 mm, so we wouldn't have been able to cut out the small gnomes as precisely as we wanted. In addition, the acrylic edge is rough when treated with the large cutter, but shiny and smooth with the laser. Therefore, the laser was the only option for treating the material.