Engraving White with Red Romark

[Tim Baude]

Hi all,
Before I start, let me say once again what a great forum this is and how much I have learned. I have never met a group so willing to share and help each other......very rare now days.

I am doing a project with white LaserMark Romark that engraves red. When I am done, the red doesn't quite look like the red on the back, a bit more marroonish. Even with another pass, it doesn't get real red. Should I be cleaning after the engraving to bring out the luster? Any guidance would be great....thank you once again in advance for all your help.
Tim

[Frank Corker]

Hi Tim. I think this has been discussed before using the Romark sheets, if you use the search you should find it. I have noticed that when I am using blue engraving white that the white doesn't look bright white. I think it's because the heat might actually be changing the surface that it exposes. Just as a thought, try a second run very fast but less than half the power and see if it lessens the problem.

[Joe Pelonio]

Frank's idea works, it's the heat and the tiny ridges left in the red that change the color. A second, less powerful pass helps. Also, don't use 600 dpi,
use 400 or even 300 for better results.

[Bill Cunningham]

You can also back off the focus abt. 1/8" this smooths out 'some' of the ridges.. The laser plastic (acrylic) does not engrave with a nice rendition of the original colour like the older stuff that you would engrave with a cutter..

[Phil Garcia]

Frank is right, I do a lot of FIRE DAMPER tags for a mechanical contractor which are white with red lettering, and I had the same issue until I did what Frank mentioned. The bigger problem was the vector cutting which gets red all over the white. I have reduced this by lowering the frequency to 2500 and this helped.

[Bob Cole]

I noticed a difference in my tags from lasermax and lasermark. I notice with the lasermax that I have to run a second pass to clear out any of the top color (blue with white engraving - first pass there is a blue hue to the white). I have not been able to figure out a setting for lasermax to do it in one pass without the discoloration.

Has anyone else experienced this between lasermark and lasermax?

[Phil Garcia]

I do all of my tags with LaserMax, sorry I have not tried LaserMark.