Lighting Gobo(s)

FYI, this is a good source to get material properties on different materials. Fair warning, it’s not the easiest to navigate.

http://www.matweb.com/index.aspx

What about high temp engine paint on Glass? I think you can get 2000F stuff.

But Lasetech Lasers asks: will it lase?

…actually, what would be the temp of the :glowforge: at the focal point?

Sounds like I should get some for an episode of ‘Will it Forge?’. Of course, I really need to get the first episode out. I’ve tested so much stuff that I haven’t gotten on the production side of things, yet.

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You can get paint good for up to 2000 degrees, Rustoleum. Got my shopping list for this weekend, and will give y’all a sneak peak of what this does in Glowforge. I’ll coat some of my anodized aluminum and see what it does.

Aluminum painted. In stage 2 of a 3-stage cure, trying to get the maximum thermal resistance. Now I just need suggestions on what design to engrave to see how the paint fares against the laser.

I concern about on glass would be engraving the glass while ablating the paint…presuming my paint test clears the paint, which I expect it will.

Be interesting to dial in.

With lots of reservation, I can proudly confirm that card stock worked the best! I couldn’t believe it, but white card stock didn’t heat much, no deformity, and cut easily on the GF (although the projection naturally magnifies all the little imperfections.)

I’m using a 60W LED moving head - Chauvet Intimidator 255 IRC
I do NOT recommend this in lights any more powerful. Frankly, I don’t recommend using it in this case either. :slight_smile:

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So, I did my test on the high temp paint (2K degree auto paint by Rustoleum). I picked a blank from my anodized aluminum stash and got the paint.

I found that the utility closet at my apartment, where my furnace and water heater are, makes a perfect paint room, with care (such as overdoing the fumes to have a nice explosion).

Several coats later, I had a blank ready to cure the paint.

IMG_4994

The cure process used the oven.
250 degees for 30 minutes.
Cool for 30 minutes.
400 degrees for 30 minutes.
Cest for 30 minutes.
600 degrees for 30 minutes.
Cool for 30 minutes.

Since my oven controls max at 500 degrees, I put it under the broiler. That may have overdone it as it darkened the paint, though I wouldn’t think it would overly-compromise the paint’s heat resistances.

One curious thing is that the curing process seems to have cause the paint to contract upon itself, pulling the edges of the aluminum card up a little.

IMG_4996

Into the Glowforge. Picked the image from my library. Full zooms and pews at 270LPI.


I didn’t anchor the card with anything, so it wobbled a little, and if I was doing this for a project, I’d probably up the LPI. At the same time, the real question was if the laser could eat the paint, which it clearly did quite nicely at. Could this be used with glass in such a way to eat the paint and not etch the glass? Possibly, but that would be quite the job on dialing in the settings.

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Hello all, I am interested in creating custom gobos.
I have successfully created a 86mm B size gobo in vectorworks and cut it out of wood on my GF.
Now to find the proper material to use in a specific lighting fixture depending on the heat produced.
I guess It would make more sense to go for a lower temp fixture to start like a ETC LED Leko or Chauvet ovation. I have witnesses others in the industry use paper gobos for a one time use, Im looking for something more like a thin plastic, no thicker than a credit card.

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