I’m looking to make some namesigns for my toy collection and I’ve been experimenting with a couple of versions. I think I like this last one a lot though I need some advice.
This is a mirrored engrave on transparent acrylic. Now on it’s own that looks great but I think using colors will make it pop more. I painted the letters and symbol with tamiya model paint (don’t mind the sloppy paint job it’s just a prototype!) But because of the engrave frosting the acrylic the colors get dulled down a lot on the reading side.
I’ve thought about just cutting the tags and using vinyl stickers as the letters but there should be a better way!
Not sure how it would affect the result, but you might try flooding the engrave with acrylic solvent and letting it evaporate. That has the effect of “polishing” the engrave.
I am currently working on a marriage plaque made from clear acrylic. the customer wanted two lovebirds in the center that would stand out. I engraved the lovebirds then cut them out on separate red acrylic and set them inside the engraving. Once it’s all completed later today i’ll post you a picture. But that would the lettering a little pop.
I’ve used India Ink with pretty good success. You can brush it into the engraves, or use a dropper which is effectively a controlled flood. You can also do layered approaches, if you invert and engrave from the back.
As for the frosted/frosting, I believe it’s only on one side? If you’re engraving through the frosted side, the frosting should be effectively gone where you’ve engraved.
Not exactly what you are looking for, but how about engraving the letters (or cutting them out totally) from the front and then cutting letters out of colored acrylic and glue into the the slots? That would give the letters a raised effect suspended in the air due to the clear acrylic.
I could have sworn there was a powder that you could sprinkle on before engraving. That way the color actually bakes into the melted acrylic as it’s getting done. I can’t remember what that was though, sorry! Maybe someone else can?
Here the pictures not completed yet they will be placed into thick PG Walnut. But the lovebirds are acrylic and glued into an engraved area of the same design.
Hi, do you defocus by setting the focal height to less than actual material height, or do you set it to more? For simple example: if material is 0.5" thick, do you set focal height to 0.25? Or if 0.25" thick, set it to 0.5? Thanks!
(Today is both >85F and can’t open windows due to hazardous air quality from wild fire smoke–so can’t simply experiment myself today without making it more hazardous inside the house!).
