I’ve been wondering if anyone has tried re-engraving designs on acrylic where you often get lines/banding. I was thinking printing a second lower-res “convert to dots/patterns” out of focus might soften the design and if run at a much reduced DPI, take little extra time.
Of course I can easily do it, but I wondered if anyone else has already tried it.
It might, generally the meta is to just defocus it from the beginning, I take it that ship has sailed?
I’ll be curious to see what happens if you try.
The folks who run a second faster engrave on two colour acrylic are kind of doing the same thing. I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone try it with a different pattern though.
Looking forward to your results!
I’ve never even figured out how to “de-focus.”
Thank you so much @evansd2! That video really helped me out! I now understand! Woohoo! (And they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Hah! 
)
You may be old, I have no idea, but I’m pretty certain you’re not a dog! Mine messes up the keyboard when she tries to type…
I’ve been working with some mirrored acrylic for some medallions I make, plenty of scraps so I might just use them to test this concept. I back-fill with color (typically nail-polish : life hack, by the way, you’re welcome. Small jars with their own brush available in bright and exciting colors for $1 at that store…) but can see the banding. Nobody I make these for does, but I do… OCD, yes!
I always get funny looks when I check out with a handful of nail polish!
Well I’ll be 69 this month, so I am a little old.
You’re too funny!
I’m surprised in this day and age than anyone would look at you strange for buying nail polish! I tried nail polish on acrylic once. I think I should’ve left it masked though, because I had a horrible time trying to remove the excess. But I can definitely see the advantage of it. I’ll have to try it again. And you’re right - you can’t beat that price nor the amount of colors available. I have several of those $1 colors, which I no longer use on my nails because they seemed to discolor them when I removed it.
Thing with the dog is, you actually can teach an old dog new tricks…it just takes longer for them to get it…but…they’ll remember it better. A young dog will get it faster…but you have to be more consistent with reinforcement or they’ll forget it basically overnight.
That’s pretty!
Yes, I only use it on masked, and engrave away the masking then apply a couple of light coats first to make sure it doesn’t get under the edges of the masking…
Essentially flame polishing. It only takes roughly 17,653 hours.
I can’t do high lpi engraves, my patience just isn’t there. 340 is about my max.
Never tried that high, but the stuff that matters is small and takes 10min or so @ 450… I’ll give that a shot as well…
Actually it can cut pretty deep and yes the lines are so close any “ridge” is blasted flat, but unless the work is very narrow, the higher speed makes up for the more passes. I have run 3 hour engraves but not much more. The time spent waiting for the piece to finish is very short compared to the time spent happy with the results.
