I’m curious about this material left in the bin. There were a few small scraps like this in a couple colors. I like the tactile feel of it more than I usually do with synthetic leathers.
It appears to be 1-2mm thick and (apparently) lasers nicely.
Anyone know where to get more?
It’s from Houston Acrylic and has a black vein in it when you raster to the right depth. I’m in love with this company, they have so many fantastic materials! I was just telling @Stephen-L-M about them the other day.
Thanks! Yeah, I remember you showing me some very novel acrylic varieties from them awhile back, too. I think you also had showed me the leatherette, but of course I forgot. 
Hmm, I also see an odd listing on their page: “Leatherette Cork” – I’m guessing that must mean it is the same synthetic material with a cork texture printed on it? Their product page is not terribly specific about that.
I’m also curious if anyone has ever tried their black sheets that “engrave to gold”. If that actually yields a pretty and durable result, that sounds quite useful.
All latherette products laser and look great. Finding the range to get those results is soooo much fun! Brown to gold on Pearl is 55/18, navy to silver on Pearl is 55/12. They have a good range of finish options to include marble and bamboo which looks real. Valerie if you have the JDS account, you should be able to get a better price from them. They do carry all kinds of Leatherette items to include adhesive backed sheets.
You MUST do a copper wire flame test on ANY synthetic leather of unknown origin.
Urethane-based is fine, and I think most are, but some is PVC, which will damage the laser even though it may cut ok. It produces chlorine gas which will corrode everything in the machine.
@J-LoM I have some of that cork material but haven’t done anything with it yet. If you want I can cut you off a little square. I have both the 3M backed black to gold sheets and the gold to black sheets. I haven’t actually rastered into them yet because so far the main thing I’ve been using them for is backings on earrings where I want the gold to stay gold. Works fantastically well for that and doesn’t add much weight. I think I had left a small piece of the gold one in the specialty bin but that might have disappeared quickly.
@JOSEGAYTAN, yes I was noticing and appreciating that! I don’t have a personal JDS account setup yet, but do plan to get one and start buying my leatherette from them. Awesome to know the settings, thank you!
@dannym these are not unknown origin. We are discussing samples from reputable sellers who only sell laser safe materials.
@valerie by that, I mean things found in the scrap bin that you don’t personally know the origin of. We have a wide range of users and you won’t likely know its origin. On rare occasions- not in recent times- I’ve found polycarbonate left in the laser scrap bin. Right now in the main shop’s free-to-use scrap bin there is black expanded PVC foamboard and few people know what that is. Of course that’s not the laser scrap bin, but I laser stuff from that bin all the time. It’s dangerously tempting to try out. Of course I can’t really just unilaterally throw it out because of that hypothetical case, and there’s no system of warning labels I can stick on.
Thus the bottom line “don’t assume the scrap bins are safe, always copper wire flame test materials you do not personally know the origin of”.
If you’ve got a reputable vendor selling it as laser-safe like you said, that’s fine, that’s not “unknown origin”, but it’s so easy to do a flame test (and the consequences of a mistake are kind of in the “dire” territory) I’d still recommend doing it first on any leatherette.
@dannym that’s fair. Also brings up a point that it may be worthwhile for us to have labels people can use for unusual scraps to say what they are and where they came from. Nice to know where to get more if you find a scrap you really like and want to get more of.
Yeah if we could get some easily removable preprinted “LASER OK” and “NOT FOR LASER” stickers, we could avoid that. I’d just stick the “NO” on any PVC foamboard and non-laserable plywood scraps.
It would be great to know if something in the scrap bin is extruded acrylic vs cell cast. Extruded is still laser safe, but it’s not the same thing.
And, actually, any vinyl cutter stuff. Just stick it on the box and a reminder note on the vinyl cutter hardware that the stock should never be used on the laser. I generally applaud people trying to use things in ways other than intended, but this one’s a potential risk.
They’d probably be pretty cheap to get some stickers printed up. Just not ones that are hard to peel off like paper ones that shred.
I did freak out a bit once when I saw someone lasering a vinyl record. I was the idiot there, though- it was actually a black acrylic cleverly processed to LOOK just like a vinyl record. Corner case.
Yup, we have lots of clever and incredibly smart folks at Asmbly that know how to get the aesthetic they are aiming for with surprising and safe materials. It is not fair to assume the worst — we should always be asking questions first.
Worst case scenario we can make up a small form and use blue tape. There have been some terrible stickers used in the past that have the issue you are mentioned (those defective stickers). Definitely don’t want stickers like that being used for something like this.
