If you have a laser you don't need to buy acrylic blanks for your UV printer or sublimation printer. You can cut your own, shaped exactly like the design you're printing.
And the best part is - you don't have to build a separate cut file to do it. You can make the cut line from the same PNG you're going to print.
I recently made some acrylic magnets and also some acrylic Christmas ornaments. All of the acrylic ornaments were cut on 3mm clear acrylic on my xTool P2 and printed on my xTool Omni UV printer (which I am obsessed with). Any CO2 laser will work for this - including the lowest price CO2 laser I've found - the Flux Beamo.
The designs for each started out the same - a PNG file on a transparent background. BUT the look I wanted for each finished product was different and that's what determines how you make the cut line.
Let me show you how it works.
Bring your Print file into xTool Studio
Start by importing the transparent PNG into xTool Studio.
You'll notice when the PNG file is brought in, xTool Studio only gives you the option to engrave it. That's because right now the file is not a vector - we need to vectorize (or trace) it to create the contour cut line.
For the magnets I wanted to see some of the clear acrylic around the outer edge. In other words, I didn't want to print all the way to the edge - I wanted a slight clear edge like a sticker would have a white edge.
This makes creating the laser cut line really easy. All you have to do is open the Offset tool from the top tool bar and add an offset.
The offset line IS a vector so you'll see in the processing options for this layer you have the option to score, engrave or cut it.
Now I can use this line to laser cut the acrylic for the magnets before UV printing on them. And if you want to know how I line up the print so perfectly without using registration marks, check out by step by step video on Youtube.
I wasn't planning on doing a tutorial on these so I didn't take many pictures along the way, but here's the full set of acrylic blanks (with the protective craft paper still on) just as the UV printing started.
I am obsessed with how this how this set of acrylic magnets I printed on my xTool Omni UV printer came out!
Custom Laser Blanks for Edge to Edge Printing
The offset is the trick to quickly creating a contour cut line, BUT if you want to create a laser cutline directly around the outside of your PNG file, like I did with my jersey ornaments, you need to take some additional steps.
Putting a cut line around the exact edge of the design is not as straight forward - but it will give you the ability to eventually print edge to edge on your custom blank. You'll completely hide the acrylic this way.
In this new Silhouette U video, I go through all of the steps including how to trace the edge of a PNG file in xTool Studio (it should be easier than it is!) so you can create a blank that exactly matches the size of your PNG file.
Be sure to follow along this three part series on Silhouette U that will not only show you how to laser cut custom acrylic blanks but also how to reverse UV print with text with full color on both sides and make each one personalized with some really cool hidden tools in xTool Studio.
Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!
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