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Thread: Paint filling acrylic

  1. #1
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    Paint filling acrylic

    Upon my return from a vacation in Maui, not only is it well below freezing here, but I have an order for 75 acrylic templates. These are 1/8" clear acrylic, engraved (text raster, lines vector) in reverse on the back, then paint filled using acrylic paint squeegied on then wiped off with a microfiber towel. They are wholesale for a manufacturer, and a patented/proprietary item so I only took a picture of a part of it showing the blue. Messy, but easy and fairly quick process.IMG_20141116_094418480.jpg_20141116_094552.jpg



    Sammamish, WA

    Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, had a sign business for 17 years, now just doing laser work on the side.

    "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." G. Weilacher

    "The handyman's secret weapon - Duct Tape" R. Green

  2. #2
    Very cool Joe! My quilter's eye thinks that's a quilting template If I could only find time to do both my passions of quilting and using the laser!!! Great job!

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michele Welch View Post
    Very cool Joe! My quilter's eye thinks that's a quilting template If I could only find time to do both my passions of quilting and using the laser!!! Great job!
    Good guess, but no, it's for a machine that's not quilt related. I have done many, many quilt templates, however. My wife quilts and teaches at a fabric store.



    Sammamish, WA

    Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, had a sign business for 17 years, now just doing laser work on the side.

    "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." G. Weilacher

    "The handyman's secret weapon - Duct Tape" R. Green

  4. #4
    Wow, lucky woman!! I don't sew except for household curtains, etc, but I love to quilt, just don't have the time to do it much.

  5. #5
    Hi Joe,

    fancy posting a video of the whole process. I can't for the life of me get this right. Have tried and failed so many times, simply gave up on it. Would really love to know how its done properly.
    Jit Patel
    London UK

    30w Trotec Speedmarker CL (Galvo) with 400mm & 250mm lens
    80w Trotec Speedy 400 with Rotary, Vacuum Table, Cutting Lamellas, 2" & 1.5" lens, Pass through
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  6. #6
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    Same here.

    I either get paint all over everything, or it ends up perfectly clean - with no paint left in the engraving.
    There must be a middle way!
    Epilog Legend 32EX 60W

    Precision Prototypes, Romsey, UK

  7. #7
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    I may be working on them again tonight, and try to get some video.



    Sammamish, WA

    Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, had a sign business for 17 years, now just doing laser work on the side.

    "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." G. Weilacher

    "The handyman's secret weapon - Duct Tape" R. Green

  8. #8
    Michael, they same thing happens to me...a complete mess or all of it wipes away. Really annoying as we have so many ideas that would be great for filling.

    Joe, if you can, you are a super star!
    Jit Patel
    London UK

    30w Trotec Speedmarker CL (Galvo) with 400mm & 250mm lens
    80w Trotec Speedy 400 with Rotary, Vacuum Table, Cutting Lamellas, 2" & 1.5" lens, Pass through
    Oki Printing Press
    Abobe Creative Suite - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign.
    Vector Magic


  9. #9
    Join Date
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    South Elgin, IL
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    I've recently tried painting some engraved foam. The kind of foam that's sold in hobby stores in 12x18 inch sheets.
    From the start I knew this would be difficult to paint due to the micro-porous nature of the foam.

    My first test was with a bare piece of engraved foam and as suspected, paint did not simply wipe off the non engraved areas. It stained the areas surrounding the engraving.

    The next step was attempting to adhere paper masking material - the kind used with vinyl lettering.
    This had two problems. It make the foam curl and cup towards the paper mask, and it was difficult getting it to stick. I didn't even attempt to engrave since it wouldn't stay flat.

    I remembered seeing some videos online demonstrating a liquid masking. It looked like silk screen block out liquid, and thinking back to my screen printing days, we occasionally would use plain old Elmer's white glue or school glue to block out screens we were going to print using solvent based inks.

    Keep in mind, this is probably only suitable for water resistant materials.

    I coated the foam with Elmer's glue and let it dry completely. I engraved, and first painted (white semi-gloss bathroom acrylic latex) it with a small brush. After the paint was totally dry, I took the foam to the sink and let it soak face down in warm water for about a minute. Then I was able to rub off the excess paint and glue. This worked pretty good although there were parts of the design where some of the white paint was washed out of the engraving. This may not have happened if I used acrylic craft paint - I'll try that after the next test.

    The current test is with the same method and same paint except I applied the paint using a stiff plastic card instead of the brush. This made the paint application much faster. I'll be washing off the excess in another couple hours and if results are good that will be the system I use.
    Last edited by Mayo Pardo; 11-19-2014 at 4:45 PM.
    Materials Conversion Specialist
    I take perfectly good large pieces of stuff & turn them into smaller pieces having dubious value

    LASER: Trotec Speedy 300 30 Watt, CNC: Shopbot PRT, Vinyl Cutter: Summa Sign Pro T750
    Old School: a tool box full of brand new sign painting brushes from the 60's


  10. #10
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    Mayo,

    This may have no bearing on what you are actually trying to accomplish, but would it be easier to do what amounts to intarsia with the craft foam? Use the laser to cut the forms or letters you want out of the background piece of foam. Then cut what will be inlaid into that out of the other pieces of foam and piece them together? You may need to glue them onto a background layer of some sort. More foam? Perhaps a thinner foam or some other material? But then you aren't struggling with trying to paint onto a porous and highly bendable substrate?

    Dave
    900x600 80watt EFR Tube laser from Liaocheng Ray Fine Tech LTD. Also a 900x600 2.5kw spindle CNC from Ray Fine. And my main tool, a well used and loved Jet 1642 Woodlathe with an outboard toolrest that helps me work from 36 inch diameters down to reallllllly tiny stuff.

  11. #11
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    I went ahead and did a short video, and uploaded it to Flickr. The link is below. Let me know if you have any questions or it doesn't show up. I'll be working on them most of the evening, with about 35 done out of 75 for this order.

    Warning, you may get dizzy. It's hard to old the phone steady while working with the other hand.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/bisjoe/15645921590/
    Last edited by Joe Pelonio; 11-19-2014 at 9:35 PM.



    Sammamish, WA

    Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, had a sign business for 17 years, now just doing laser work on the side.

    "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." G. Weilacher

    "The handyman's secret weapon - Duct Tape" R. Green

  12. #12
    Thank Joe, that was great...you made it look so easy. The part I cannot get right, it taking the paint off. It just takes it out the engraved areas too. How deep do you go?
    Jit Patel
    London UK

    30w Trotec Speedmarker CL (Galvo) with 400mm & 250mm lens
    80w Trotec Speedy 400 with Rotary, Vacuum Table, Cutting Lamellas, 2" & 1.5" lens, Pass through
    Oki Printing Press
    Abobe Creative Suite - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign.
    Vector Magic


  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jiten Patel View Post
    Thank Joe, that was great...you made it look so easy. The part I cannot get right, it taking the paint off. It just takes it out the engraved areas too. How deep do you go?
    I have no way to measure the depth, but I engrave at a slower than normal speed (80) with higher power (65), to go deeper, and for the lines, speed 35, power 25. The lines appear to be less than 1/4 of the way deep. It helps that the paint is thick but smooth, so it goes in easily but remains in. An only costs 69 cents/bottle at the craft store. Are you using cast acrylic? The paint doesn't stick as well to extruded. When the customer asked for paint fill I had to switch to cast, and add that to the price as well as the painting time.
    Last edited by Joe Pelonio; 11-20-2014 at 9:58 AM.



    Sammamish, WA

    Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, had a sign business for 17 years, now just doing laser work on the side.

    "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." G. Weilacher

    "The handyman's secret weapon - Duct Tape" R. Green

  14. #14
    Join Date
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    Location
    South Elgin, IL
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    David,

    The inlaid or intarsia method wouldn't work for the designs I'm doing. Small text about 3/16 and images with smaller detail.

    I tried another 7 pieces last night and filled the engraved areas with paint with a thin "rewards card" from a local store, and after the paint had dried a few hours I did the warm water soak for a minute, and instead of rubbing the excess paint off, I used the card to scrape it off and this worked better - more even and consistent than my fingers for removing the paint. There was less paint removed from areas where it should have remained.

    If I engrave just a little deeper, I think the Elmer's glue masking idea is a success.
    Materials Conversion Specialist
    I take perfectly good large pieces of stuff & turn them into smaller pieces having dubious value

    LASER: Trotec Speedy 300 30 Watt, CNC: Shopbot PRT, Vinyl Cutter: Summa Sign Pro T750
    Old School: a tool box full of brand new sign painting brushes from the 60's


  15. #15
    Thanks Joe for sharing that video. For those that are having difficulties, skip the liquid paint, go the paint department in the craft stores where they keep canvas, brushes, etc. and get yourself a tube of acrylic paint. It's the consistency of toothpaste, you can squirt a bit out, use business cards you collect from people you'll never do business with, drag it across the item to fill, come at it from 3-4 directions to get it all filled in. Use the business card to scrape off any excess. Let it dry for a few minutes, lightly dampen (the lighter the better) a paper towel with denatured alcohol and wipe the excess off.

    The reason I like this paint much better than the liquid is because once you fill the engraving and let it dry, it shrinks down into the engraving a little bit. That means when you are wiping the excess away, it doesn't pull all your paint out of the engraving. If you need to retouch for a missed area, just repeat in that area.

    I stopped using liquids maybe 2 years ago after discovering the acrylic paste like paints.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
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    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

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