I'm getting close to purchasing a machine and have noticed when cutting 1/4" clear acrylic (or thicker) that the cuts are not perfectly perpendicular to the surface. I assume this has something to do with the laser being refracted by the material as it cuts through. The amount of error will vary from cut to cut (on the same machine) but has been present on all machines I have looked at. This would be problem if, for example, you plan to construct a perfectly square box out of clear acrylic. The amount of error I'm talking about is perhaps being off by as much as 1/4" from square when placing a 6" square on a perfectly flat surface.
Although this will not affect most of what I plan to do I'd like to know if this is a problem for laser systems which cost more than $30K. My budget is under 30K so I have only been getting demos of machines within this range.
Perhaps, is there a practical way to "flatten" these edges?
As things stand, I would be forced to use my CNC router for outside edges and then doing etching or inside cuts with the laser... Keeping everything perfectly aligned going from the router to the laser machine may be tedious for some shapes..