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Thread: Laser Engraving Fill .. Question About the Finish

  1. #1

    Laser Engraving Fill .. Question About the Finish

    Hi, first post here. Lots and lots of information on this site, good to see people with a common interest banding together )

    I do CNC and laser engraving at work and lately I've had to take on some of the load of finishing the products. My normal process is .. Sanding > Sanding sealer > Sanding > lacquer > Sanding > polishing > and then I engrave. I prefer engraving AFTER putting the finish on as it tends to give it more of that burnt look. You kind of lose that if you engrave and THEN put the finish on.

    So here's my question .. if I wanted to put a mirror finish on the wood what would be the most efficient way to fill in the engraving? On our higher end plaques I usually paint them .. basically put tape on the bare wood, engrave through the tape, spray it with spray paint, remove tape, start the finish process.

    Is there a wax or paste of some sort that I could use to fill in the engraved area? I'm fairly new to the finishing process and therefore limited on my knowledge of products available. For example .. Put wax on > level with squeegee > sanding sealer > sand > etc.

    Thank you for your time.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Spring Hill FL.
    Posts
    1,133
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    Do you want the engraving to stay filled? I have built a few instruments that I have had laser engraved, and I use epoxy as a pore filler, then had the instrument lasered. I then fill the lasering with more epoxy, scrape and sand level, then apply finish... it can take up to 3 coats of epoxy to get everything flat, but the epoxy is clear and does not muddy up the wood. If I want the lasering to have a certain cover, I first add acrylic paint to the lasering, lightly sand any from the surface, then epoxy. The epoxy I use is z-poxy.
    Andrew Gibson
    Program Manger and Resident Instructor
    Florida School Of Woodwork

  3. #3
    I'll have to give it a try, I'm thinking maybe sanding sealer > engrave > epoxy > finish? Basically just need the engraved areas to be filled with something thicker than lacquer as the engraving tends to soak up the finish deeper than the flat surface. I was thinking a wax type product would be the most efficient though .. as I could squeegee over the top of the engraving and I'd be left with the engraved areas filled with wax. And from there put sanding sealer on, sand etc. As they say ... time is money!!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Presently in Knoxville TN.
    Posts
    361
    Actually i would not use wax under lacquer, bad bonding, although i'm sure someone will point out that mowhawk fil sticks are made of wax, it's still a bad bond. Does it work? Well.... yes but if you were to take a strong adhesive tape to the area after it dried you would see that the lacquer pulls off the wax rather easily in comparison to using other fillers. You may want to try a black burn in stick instead, this is made of compatible lacquer resins, mostly acrylic. Fill the area with hot melted stick and then pull your burn in knife over it at an angle to remove the excess, go to mowhawk finishing to view what i'm talking of ok?

    http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/
    Last edited by sheldon pettit; 01-27-2013 at 10:46 PM.

  5. #5
    Jeff

    Welcome to SMC.

    I purchase all my plaques as I can't make them nearly as cheap or as well. That said, when engraving customer's pieces I insist that they be finished as it is so much easier to clean up the tar and smoke residue from a finish. I generally do a paint fill after sealing the engraved area so that the paint doesn't bleed into the wood around the engraved area. I seal with shellac, sometimes liquid floor wax and often with clear acrylic spray from a rattle can.

    Regardless of your sealer, the colorfill will stay. There is nothing to cause it to chip crack or peal.

    If you're getting a big buck for your plaques you may want to try inlay. It's a great look but takes a lot more work.

    Here are a couple of customer made plaques along with a purchased plaque using gold paint fill.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  6. #6
    Thank you for the replies! Those look great, how do you fill in such small lettering?! I used Zpoxy and it worked great for its intended purpose so +1 for the friend folks and SMC .. I've been accustoming myself to grain fillers and such over this last week, been learning learning learning ... sometimes good and sometimes bad .. but learning none the less. My boss also does tree removal/stump grinding/logging etc. so a lot of the plaques we sell I have to plane the wood down, cut the shape out with the CNC or table saw, router the edge, sand etc. I'd be in heaven if he let me spend the money to buy pre-made plaques I'd like to do more color though, so any tips/tricks would be greatly appreciated!

    Couple of things I've done recently .. Plaque fresh out of the laser (with residue still on it!) and a couple name slabs on the CNC!

    reece.jpgnameslabs.jpg

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