High speed too. It doesn’t take much to mark the leather.
will look a that, too. Like I said, those were purely with proofgrade defaults. The only difference in the last 2 was masking on/off.
True to form, I will probably cut, peel masking, then engrave when I do that.
Chuckle! Try to remember to do it the other way…the leather can curl when you engrave it. 
Good to know, I’ll be playing, of course.
I wonder if the problem is that the adhesive bonds more strongly over time, so after it’s manufactured and sitting around in warehouses and on people’s IKEA shelves, the masking is becoming one with the leather.
I haven’t actually tried any leather yet, I’m afraid of the smell based on what people have described.
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FWIW: If your venting is really good, you don’t get any smell until you open the 
. Leather, more than anything, convinced me that my rig is more than adequate.
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I don’t think it’s age… when I peeled off the masking to try reapplying it gently, it came up pretty willingly. I think it just gets welded down at the edges by the laser.
I’ve had it a little tough to peel even before burning. Maybe a batching thing?
This is true of regular masking tape on generic leather, doubly so on the suede side.
I wonder that, too. My leather’s been sitting for… what… 3-4 months. SUPER-sticky. Real pain.
I’ve seen some of your other posts that seem to indicate you’re rather sensitive to smells. I’m not but, man, leather has quite a smell to it. Think burnt hair mixed with drilled tooth. And it definitely lingers.
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Thank you so much for the feedback! I’ll make sure the right team gets it. If it’s still possible, would you shoot us a photo of the QR code on that leather, or let us know the approximate time you were printing? Thanks!
Rita-
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It would have been on the 22nd or 23rd. The only two pieces of leather I’ve printed. The QRs no longer exist, sadly.
A crepe eraser works really well at getting this adhesive off of leather once you get a corner up. Also takes a bit of the charring away and therefore lightens the image somewhat…something to consider if you want the dark to be more prominent.
Has anyone tried using an alternative masking material? I’ve gotten a bunch of medium-tack painters tapes, but they all pull up a small amount of the leather surface when removing, even when they haven’t been left on there for very long. The green Frog Tape is better than the blue tape I was using, but still tends to lift some material. I’m trying to find a masking material that I can use on some leather I already have in house, and not sure what the best option is. Something low-tack and paper-based, but just not sure where to get that. Any help is appreciated, thank you!
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I’ve had good results with this stuff: https://www.johnsonplastics.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=glassguard
I don’t recommend painter’s tape at all - actually had it fuse to some of my projects, rendering them completely useless (a real bummer after a long engrave).
FWIW, I like gorilla tape best for weeding small areas, and try to do bigger areas by hand. The less tape contact with porous leather grain, the better IME.
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I’d look at vinyl cutter supply places for low-tack masking paper. I have some for my vinyl cutter that I’d like to experiment with, but I think it’s medium-tack.
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One of the reasons why I haven’t done leather for a while. The low tack masking I got one of those *ables/ibles companies won’t stick right and masking tape just stuck too tight. Dropped the leather and just haven’t gotten around to solving the masking problem yet.
Really want to get my delrin sheet engraved with some type of design for a punch/press design. Too little time, too many possibilities.
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This wouldn’t work for all situations but might be helpful for some of you. In traditional leatherworking there is a technique for veg tan known as ‘resist and dye’ where you paint on a resist fluid, let it dry then apply dye over. The resist is permanent and there are various types of formulas in use. All of them seal the surface much like a wood finish. You can put resist on after dying leather too if desired then add more/different dye on top of that.
If you pre-resist your leather, let dry overnight, then laser - any smoke marks are easily wiped away. I’ve tried this a couple years ago with a Full Spectrum laser and it worked quite well as long as you apply plenty of resist and plan all your color/dye steps accordingly. I suppose you could put low tack tape over the dried resist, too, but that seems like overkill.
Tandy’s EcoFlo Super Shene is an acrylic based product as opposed to a traditional lacquer based formula.
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Oh I forgot - Tandy has several tempting spray finishes that work for resist but they’re all highly flammable and not shippable - I’d avoid lasering those.
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