I’ve been looking for an alternative to acrylic for some of the things I’ve been building. The problem I have with acrylic is how easy it breaks.
As a test I bought a sheet of plastic described as. Acetal Delrin White Sheet .125″ x 24″ x 24″
In my first tests on the laser, it looks very promising. No toxic cloud of smoke was visible as with lexan. The laser was able to cut it very similar to acrylic. It was about the same speed as acrylic.
One downside noted was below the sheet, a white coating was clearly visible on my aluminum cutting table. I’m guessing acrylic probably does similar but since the acrylic is clear, the vapor which dries on the cutting table is invisible, while the white is plainly visible. Another down side was the sheet i purchases has a slight curve to it. I’m not sure if that’s common to the material or just the one sheet i purchases.
I believe the plastic goes by either the name Acetal or Delrin. This plastic is much stronger than acrylic. The downside is it’s not transparent. I’ve seen that it comes in either black or white.
You can also try what is called UHI, ultra high impact acrylic, this cuts just fine and is more flexible (and generally cheaper) than cast or extruded acrylic. It does not glue as well as acrylic. Most perspex supply houses have it. Be careful of stuff like extruded or other stressed acrylics , laser processing puts incredible stress into them and often solvents or even being near solvents lead to major stress cracking.