White Oak - Masking

[laurschmaur]

Hi! Is this discoloration due to the masking coming up? I am cutting/engraving white oak with an MDF core using proof grade MDF settings. I used masking and burnished it to the wood. I also used honey comb pins to hold down my material. Thank you!

[rbtdanforth]

Oak is one of the dirtiest woods you can cut with only MDF being worst yet. I have found hand sanitizer to be great at cleaning off the crud, but is also excellent at turning MDF back into sawdust.

I recently cleaned up some MDF centered maple by getting a rag damp with the sanitizer on a hard surface and dragging the wood across it to wipe away the crud without getting the wood damp.

[evansd2]

@laurschmaur

Is this discoloration due to the masking coming up?

Sure looks like it.

[laurschmaur]

Thanks for the tip!

[shop]

make sure you sand that oak first before you put the masking on. and then bray it down really well with a card so it’s adhered as consistently as possible.

i’d clean that off with a light sanding. which would also clean up whatever “tack” the masking pulled up.

[evansd2]

What @shop said:

Masking not adhering to wood well? Try sanding your piece first

Kind of says it all in the subject. I bought some more BB last week or so, and my masking which worked well (transferrite) on the previous batch was just peeling up like crazy. I looked really closely and there were tool marks on the surface, shallow grooves running the whole length of the wood. I gave it a quick sanding with ~400 grit sandpaper, wiped all the dust off, and I was back in business. Don’t forget to use a squeegee or something to press the masking down.