Let me start by saying I love the masking tape. It avoids the burn marks and its perfect to protect the material or even great for when you need to paint engraved areas. However, when you are mass producing stuff that has engraving, it can turn into a little pain in the butt.
What alternatives are out there to protect the meterial from burns and that is easy (or easier) to clean? Masking sticks to material a lot because of the glue and it can be annoying at times, alternatives? tricks? tips on how to clean to remove it faster? My thumb will appreciate it
That’s what I was thinking about $$$… I have a bunch of plastic razor blades… I will give that a try!!! The only problem I am still having is the “glue” kind of melts into the engraved area and if i dont use a rag with soapy water and rub it off A LOT then it leaves a “haze”
I don’t mask engraves for that reason – you also lose a lot of fine detail to the masking. If you can cut the pieces first, or run a score around them, then peel the masking from the engrave areas (without moving the material in the bed), then engrave, you’ll save a lot of work. The remaining masking protects the rest of the material from smoke marks, and you’ll have more defined engraves and less glue-cleaning work.
For acrylic I remove all masking and put a sheet of copy paper between acrylics and crumbtray to eliminate flashback. Just keep a close eye in case fire, which is wise for acrylic in general.
For woods- a lot of people have reported that alcohol works well to remove smoke stains from unmasked pieces. Either in wipes or hand sanitizer form.
In a production environment I pull the mask to prevent all of the time consuming weeding as suggested, and I have found household ammonia to be much more effective at removing the smoke stain.
When faced with weeding 6,000 tokens engraved both sides weeding just wasn’t an option, and in exploring an alternative stumbled on ammonia which is at least twice as effective as alcohol in terms of time.
Also, cleaning soon after the operation is best. I found cleaning the next day was a bit slower. I’m assuming the residue dries or oxidizes, but it hardens over time.
No, I haven’t much explored cleaning the interior of an engrave, the tokens were all text. I use the ammonia to clean the surrounding surface.
When I have worked to clean one I used a toothbrush.
I have seen some examples of engraves so clean they looked like they were sandblasted. I have no idea how that was accomplished.
Yeah, alcohol is contraindicated for use on acrylics (if that’s what you mean by “plastic”). Soapy water will work fine, or maybe an ammonia-based cleaner.
First, make sure the plastic you’re engraving does not contain PVC. The term “plastic” encompasses a whole range of materials, and many of them are unsafe to laser. Acrylic is a specific formulation, whether see-through or not, and is safe to laser.
That said, ammonia is pretty much available anywhere. I didn’t really have a specific product in mind. Vinegar water would work too; anything you’d use to clean your windows or countertop that doesn’t contain alcohol would probably be fine.
An old housewife trick: Let the tokens soak in warm soapy water for a few hours before you start scrubbing. Most of your work should be done for you by then; it will save your fingers.
I had been using alcohol hand sanitizer with no issues till I bought it in 2 liter bottles and then it ruined the Acrylic. Retried the retail stuff (like Purell) and the masking just floats away without damaging the acrylic.
Pretty sure it is the specific alcohols involved. The Spectrum brand feels different and a couple of days till it evaporated away did no harm, The other will act as has been reported in seconds. Any simple string of carbons with an OH on one of them is an alcohol but they all have very different properties.
