Although acrylic is 10-20 times stronger than glass when it comes to impact, acrylic needs to be treated with as much care, if not more care than glass! Acrylic has very unique characteristics that require special care, especially when it comes to crafting with and also cleaning your acrylic!
As experts in our field, Laser Blanks has spent considerable time and effort in ensuring you have only the highest quality acrylic pieces to craft with. Our machines are fine tuned to cut you acrylic to leave you with the perfect finishes - every time - and because of this, we want to ensure that you can have your acrylic looking its very best!! From hobbyists through to business owners, here's how to NOT destroy your acrylic!
NEVER use alcohol, acetone or solvents to clean your acrylic!
Alcohol and acrylic do not mix! When alcohol or acetone is used to clean acrylic (and yes, this includes Windex), micro fractures will begin to occur from the edges of the acrylic and over time, these can grow into extremely large fractures - this is called crazing. When alcohol is used, this fracturing or crazing, creates a very unique appearance and cannot be reversed.
Crazing or fracturing can occur slowly and can start with microcracks and then turn into something much more sinister over time. Never reach for alcohol or acetone to clean your acrylic, this includes products such as Windex.
The image below is the result of a customer cleaning her acrylic with some acetone. She attempted to remove some sticky residue from vinyl after a design change. The acrylic looked perfect immediately after, but came back to find it looking like this.
Depending on the product used, crazing or fracturing can result in different effects from slight cracking on the sides to large fractures throughout the piece . To avoid any sort of issues, please do not use any corrosives, any alcohol or acetone etc.
So what can I use?
The only way to clean your acrylic safely is to avoid all solvents acetone and alcohol and to use mild soap and warm water with a soft fibreless cloth. This method will ALWAYS work!
As mentioned above, there are of course, many types of alcohol on the market with varying percentages of alcohol strength. Some may see no crazing effects with the use of some, however, at Laser Blanks, we are very strong believers in avoiding these at all cost.
As always, if you have any questions regarding your acrylic, please feel free to contact our friendly team!
