Reading the Advanced Inlays post again, it strikes me to ask:
If the laser really doesn’t penetrate the aluminum tape, and if this approach really is safe, does that mean we can create long lasting (non-sacrificial) cutting beds or jigs by simply covering them in aluminum tape?
My guess is - yes. People have been using aluminum foil under their material to keep small pieces from falling through the honeycomb tray without issue, and covering areas they don’t want engraved with aluminum foil to salvage prints.
Why is it safe — what actually happens to the laser’s energy? Does it just get absorbed and dissipate, or does it bounce?
It dissipates the heat so quickly that it doesn’t cut.
Same reason you can take something wrapped in tinfoil out of a hot oven and open it with your bare hands a few seconds later.
Cue up my earworm
It doesn’t really matter. People freak out about copper, for example, being reflective, but it’s not a perfect mirror and even if it was, it would be completely out of focus by the time it “bounced” back to the lens.
I’ve engraved painted copper sheets just fine. The tube on my first machine expired naturally, after a much longer-than-expected life. I never replaced the lens.
Heh. I’ve always wondered about that, but too chicken to try it.
What would be the point? Full bleed engraves of precut items?
This intrigued me. Nothing more frustrating than losing power 3/4 of the way through a 90 minute engrave. Seems like a great way to save a project.
A cutting surface where small pieces don’t fall into the honeycomb.
Or, a bottom layer of masking that doesn’t get cut, so that you can peel the masking away as one piece (the Gorilla tape trick, applied to the bottom in advance).
I find that the tape sandwich is fast and effective, but yeah aluminum tape might make it simpler.
I wonder what the effect on cutting and masking is if you don’t have the bottom of the cut to “vent” smoke and other byproducts of the cut?
If necessary, I just use a sheet of thin alu foil (catering style box from costco, lifetime supply and I cook a lot.) My painted copper sheets are for old-fashioned blueprint engraves. Cheap sheets from the hardware store, painted black then engraved.
This isn’t one of mine, or copper it seems, but I make car stuff and science stuff for people…
My daughter has one of the C5 she had…
Just saw this thread and sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake and need things spelled out in black and white so I have a couple of questions: (1) @dklgood says “using aluminum foil under … material to keep small pieces from falling through the honeycomb tray…” So what’s the issue with just shaking the tray out and sweeping the bits up and throwing them away? (I don’t mean it to sound snarky!) (2) “and covering areas they don’t want engraved…” Can’t that be addressed in the UI by choosing Ignore? What am I missing here?
“Small pieces” - I have a lot of cases where I’m trying to cut out pieces small enough to fall through (the desired product, not the discarded debris).
“Cover parts of the engraving” - I’d guess what he meant is when an engraving is interrupted halfway through and needs to be restarted without re-engraving the previously done parts.
Oh, I LIKE that “without re-engraving” part. I’ve had that situation lots of times and wished there was a work-around. So all I need do is cover the previously engraved part with alu foil and re-start the file?
I’ll let someone else answer that, as I’ve never done it.
Yeah, for tiny puzzle pieces that might fall through the holes.
Well, I have a Sutherlands Home Base 1/4 mile from me. Guess where I’m headed.
100%
The tinfoil trick means no chance of a darker area when you re-run it. It works best if you haven’t moved anything, trying to re-line up is a nightmare.
I don’t like doing it for large sections, cuz it’s sparky. If I needed to do that I’d probably cover the tinfoil with masking to lessen the sparking.
