Need Help quick! Acrylic Award Cleaning

[Steve Clarkson]

I have to engrave and deliver an acrylic award before noon today.

I bought the attached award from LaserBits and when I went to pull off the mask to engrave it, it didn't all come off. There is a 4" strip of dried glue on it that I can't get off. I tried water and Goo Gone and neither touched it.

I don't want it to get ruined.....any idea what I can use? I don't have any Novus and I didn't want to try WD-40 or DNA in fear of making it cloudy or causing crazing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Oh.....and I assume this one should be engraved on the front.....right?

[Dan Hintz]

You should be safe with the WD-40... use it sparingly and wipe it off with just elbow grease rather than any other chemical (though soap and water would be fine). I don't know how tacky that stuff is, but if you have some gorilla Tape around, I would repeatedly apply and peel a strip over the affected areas... that GT is good stuff, and it will tend to peel away junk without leaving any residue of its own (if you don't leave it on for an extended period).

[David Fairfield]

You can scrape it a little after its soaked with WD-40 or water or whatever. I've found that I can scrape plexi and not leave a scratch or mark, as long as the scraper is softer than plexi and I'm careful. So for example, some white sheet styrene with a straight edge might work as a scraper, or a piece of soft wood like basswood. Test on the bottom first and go easy!

Dave

[Martin Boekers]

Steve try soaking it in water for a bit, hopefully since this is acrylic that it's a water soluble adhesive,

Marty

[Andrea Weissenseel]

I have some machine cleaner for my embroidery machine



RemoveCleaner Spray
Cleans adhesive laden surfaces. Such as embroidery hoops, needles, frames, tabletops, quilting frames, stencils, screen printing pallets, etc. Removes sticky stuff like stickers, sticking tape adhesive residue from hard surfaces.
Remove is a natural product that leaves a pleasant citrus smell when used. It also works exceptionally well as a general purpose spray & wipe cleaner."

I just sprayed it on a piece acrylic and it didn't do any harm - anything you try, just use a piece scrap acrylic and you should be safe

P.S. on the picture it looks to me like it's engraved from the back

Andrea

[Vaughan Raymond]

Old masking on acrylic can be miserable. I've found that a little heat applied gently with a heat gun and the masking peels off like magic!

[Lenin Alvarez]

had that problem two days ago, after failing with goo gone, wd40 i just buffed it out with the high speed buffer and the polished back again

[Steven Wallace]

Steve I believe, like Andrea, that this is a backside engraving but could be done either way. Just remember to invert if doing it from the backside... like you don't know that already but if you blew it... didn't want you blaming me.

[Rodne Gold]

You can try benziene, meths and thinners.. one should work
just dont use em after engraving.

[Steve Clarkson]

Thanks for all the ideas......I'll try them tomorrow.

By the way.......LaserBits really impressed me......they're sending a replacement via overnight mail. Probably still lost the customer since there was a ceremony today to give the award and they WERE NOT happy......but LaserBits did everything that I could have asked for to rectify the situation. That was a great act of excellent customer service.

[Bill Cunningham]

If that happened to me, I would probably just apologize for the problem, and give them the award n/c.. At least they will know that you feel their pain, and doing everything you can to make it better. Unless they are total jerks, they will give you a second chance in the future..

[Mike Null]

Steve

Almost all acrylic should be back engraved. Layout can get a little tricky but it's a more professional look. all too often acrylics come without a gift box. Remember to ask the supplier if they have a box for the item.

[Bob Davis]

The only substance that's given me any joy (at least with removing backing paper) is kerosene.

[Steve Clarkson]

Steve

Almost all acrylic should be back engraved. Layout can get a little tricky but it's a more professional look. all too often acrylics come without a gift box. Remember to ask the supplier if they have a box for the item.

The funny thing is that my decision came down to engraving area......the front of that particular award had almost twice as much room to engrave as the back did. But this "award" was more of an advertisement than anything.......she literally gave me 4 PARAGRAPHS to engrave on this thiing......yes, it said "congrats on completing our two year hairdresser training program"......but then it went on and on with notices to customers about how this hairdresser's prices were going to increase effective immediately due to her advanced training, etc. etc. I'll tell you.....I sure wouldn't have been impressed with it had I received it!

I wasn't going to tell someone with 50 employees that just spent $100 on an "award" that it's not the best place to put notices to customers.....so the bottom line is that my decision to put it on the front was based solely on the fact that I didn't want the fine print to be toooo small for those little old ladies getting their hair done to read.

[Martin Boekers]

Steve,

Things like that will happen no matter how well you think you're prepared.

Sometimes on base I get things at the very last minute and don't have time to engrave it (half hour before the ceremony)

What I do in a case like that is give them a non engraved piece and engrave it later that day. This way they at least have a piece to present at a ceremony.

Sometimes if vendor sent the wrong product or I had laser issues (must be the laser 'cos we don't make mistakes;)) I will engraved a different product (usually nicer if I have one in stock) Then they have something to present at the ceremony. I can engrave the one they selected later after I get a fresh delivery if that's what they prefer.

I find that helps because It really shows I did all I could to make sure that they didn't show up at the event with nothing to present.

Marty