I have been experimenting — as I only got the laser last week. I cut some acrylic sheeting and found that when it vector cuts (with the guidelines of the manual) there appears a “fog” or film like appearance on the face of the sheet near the vector cuts. Looks to me like it was hot and tried to melt. Is that part of the problem?
Also, tried to laser a small photo (small for speed — didn’t want to waste lots of time and sheeting) and it looks just like a square of sandblasting — some detail at an angle so the photo is there, but what kind of setting or adjustments to photos make good on acrylics?
The fogging around the cuts is common as well as a sticky residue along the cut edges. You can reduce the fogging by leaving the masking on or applying a low tack paper mask first. Test any plastic mask first as it may melt if done with high power. You can also try cutting with the good side face down. If it is clear acrylic that won’t help. You might find it easier overall to reduce the power and do more than one pass for the cutting. I only do a few pictures since it takes so long to get them to come out. On pictures, the image on the screen is not what the laser produces. If using an lcd monitor, the image in grayscale mode has to be almost invisible. You may need to play with the brightness, contrast or tone curve settings. It will vary depending on what material you are lasering on. If you are lasering on a dark item, you may need to “invert” the image like a photo negative. Attached is a sample of what I used recently for you to get an idea of the contrast and brightness. This was an inverted image. Notice there are no completely black or white areas. If your laser has a photo setting make sure you use it. Some people have luck converting the image to a black and white halftone image but I haven’t had much luck with it. If you are going to do a lot of photos you might want to invest in special software just for that purpose called photograv. http://www.photograv.com/ I will likely be getting it shortly. Some people like it and some don’t. But I can’t afford to spend hours trying to make minor adjustments to get a photo to come out.