I have been working on making a puzzle, and even with doing the following things, I haven’t been able to reduce the char on the puzzle. Please see the images below to see the image, then the puzzle to see the charing. Here is what I’ve done (sorry, still super newbie btw):
First I used a matte photo paper, no matte sealer. Charred.
Then I tried a satin paper with no matte sealer. They are typically much more durable and wipe clean easier. Charred.
Did Satin with matte sealer. Charred.
I haven’t really done much with the power or other settings b/c I’m a little limited on materials and I’m hoping someone will have good advise, so, does anyone have any insight into how I fix this?
I’ve struggled with this myself, on a puzzle that uses adhesive prints on an MDF backing.
In my case, most masking (including TransferRite Ultra Low Tack) damaged the print, but I found that a generous coat of Krylon spray lacquer before masking worked beautifully. The masking peeled off cleanly with Gorilla Tape, and any residual soot wiped right off with a barely-dampened rag.
Unfortunately the edges of my print started to chip and flake with handling, which rendered that experiment a failure. It’s an option to try, though, especially if the photo paper is sturdy and you can dial in the settings.
(Ignore the terrible alignment, this was a sloppy test.)
I do not have personal experience with Perfect Tear, but many people use it. I suggest you read this thread regarding puzzles, masking and weeding. How To: Weed a Puzzle Like A Boss
Definitely read through that thread - and also pretty much anything @jbmanning5 says about puzzles. He’s gone from home user to full on business model strictly with puzzles. He’s got this stuff down cold!
Also, there’s nothing stopping you from cutting the puzzle upside down…if you’ve got your power settings right there won’t be flashback.
I print the photo on matt brochure paper, then use polyacrylic to glue the photo to the backer material and seal the photo (just like decoupage). I let the polyacrylic dry for 72 hours, then I mask. I have had no problems with charing or weeding.
As @deirdrebeth mentioned, I cut my puzzles with the image side facing down after I have carefuly tweaked my settings to do a “kiss-cut” which is just enough power to cut without creating flashback.
The biggest pain I had with that is that if you had any little area that didn’t cut through, it’s difficult at best to finish the cut from the back to the front, and it’s also pretty obvious that it was mechanically cut. Cutting from the front to the back, it’s pretty simple to either sand a cut through problem area or finish with an xacto knife, without it being obvious on the face.
I also like the fit better when cutting front to back, versus back to front. The kerf LOOKS tighter on the front though, so visually it may be a little better, but I felt the pieces didn’t interlock as tight as when you cut face to back.
Ha not at all. Just my experience and could be imagination as far as the fit.
I’ve always stuck with Baltic birch on the puzzles though (for strength), but that’s hardly the gold standard in cutting ply despite what people say, it just sucks less than most ply. I even found some crazy thin .006” saw blades that I used every now and then to complete partial cuts. That was horrible.
I think for 1/8” Baltic birch is an exceptional value. I don’t get failure to cuts very often with that thickness. 1/4” seems to have interior void issues much more regularly. I’ve only done a couple sheets of 1/2” Baltic and it’s rather annoying…
