Peel away plastic adhesive sheets for colored lettering

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What I would like to do is lay down a thin, adhesive-backed sheet of colored film on a material (plywood, acrylic sheet, etc) and cut around the profile of lettering or some design, and then peel away the excess and leave the colored letters or design remain on the material. Has this been done?

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Do a search for “laser foil.” Somewhere in here there are some nice examples. :slight_smile:

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Thanks. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. But the foils are interesting.

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Cricut machines can do what I would like to do on a laser.

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There are lots of plastic stick-on films out there, but many of them are PVC based. This is your first post, so if you don’t know about the risks of PVC, check out #4:

There are other films that are polyester based, particularly check out Oracal’s products.

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The 3M adhesive is laser safe - it’s what they use on the :proofgrade: veneer but I don’t believe it comes in anything but clear.

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3M adhesive is adhesive on both sides. that’s how it works with the veneer (and other things).

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…yes… what they’re describing requires adhesive on both sides…

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not necessarily. those “peel away” sheets the OP was talking about usually already come with adhesive.

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Oracal 351 is a self-adhesive polyester film available in chrome, matte chrome, and gold. Oracal 352 is similar, but is screen/uv printable, and comes in white as well.

another option is to contact a sign shop and have them print you custom sheets on a PVC-free self-adhesive film material such as 3M Envision 480, Avery Dennison MPI 3901, Oracal 3981, Hexis HX500WG2, etc.

I love using the Envision material from 3M, it accepts high-density printing, has a great tonal range, it is highly conformable (with heat) and can be applied to smooth or textured surfaces (with heat and pressure). It has an air-release feature baked into the adhesive side which makes bubble-free application easy (with some practice). And it has a service life of up to 11 years, which is way better than most films (4-8 years max life).

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I can’t answer your question, and it seems several others have already done so. I just want to welcome you to the forum! You will love it here.

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