Jared Greenberg
09-03-2009, 6:50 PM
I first posted about looking into purchasing a laser engraver back in June2007. This is how I first came to this forum.
Anyways, our Epilog Mini 24, 35 Watt came in on Tuesday, and will a lot of help from our sales rep and some help from tech support I was up and running in about 19 hours. This included my time setting up a room in my basement running around town for the venting and installing the duct work for my vent.
Our company makes baseball bats and we are doing the engraving on the ends (barrel) of the bats. We had been using a vinyl plotter for about 8 years and was slowing us down more than anything. After one day with the engraver, it no doubt will save us time and money.
It will take a little time to become familiar with Corel and finding the tricks to changing text, centering etc. in the fastest/most efficient way possible.
This is where the question comes in. We do stain/lacquer our bats (water based) and after engraving I need to color fill the engraving to match our centre brand color (we use black, silver, white and gold). I went and bought some acrylic paint (in those colors) and tried to fill and then wipe off but it left some residue behind and in the small pores.
Then it was suggested using hair spray before engraving, color fill with the acrylic. I got better residue results but getting the hairspray off is a slow process that requires a lot of rubbing = too long of a time.
I am now onto the Elmer's wood filler - which actually works well. So I think I'm set with white. I also read on here that I can put the acrylic paint into the wood filler.
So I guess my question would be is how much and do you guys think that it would leave the residue of the paint behind?
I would use the above method for black, silver and gold.
I have also order a roll of the laser mask to compare results.
Which might serve my purpose the best. I'm looking for speed and nice results. The results don't have to be of a $400 piece for a customer. The bats will break and as long as they look good I'm happy.
Thanks for your input and help dating all the way back to 2007.
Anyways, our Epilog Mini 24, 35 Watt came in on Tuesday, and will a lot of help from our sales rep and some help from tech support I was up and running in about 19 hours. This included my time setting up a room in my basement running around town for the venting and installing the duct work for my vent.
Our company makes baseball bats and we are doing the engraving on the ends (barrel) of the bats. We had been using a vinyl plotter for about 8 years and was slowing us down more than anything. After one day with the engraver, it no doubt will save us time and money.
It will take a little time to become familiar with Corel and finding the tricks to changing text, centering etc. in the fastest/most efficient way possible.
This is where the question comes in. We do stain/lacquer our bats (water based) and after engraving I need to color fill the engraving to match our centre brand color (we use black, silver, white and gold). I went and bought some acrylic paint (in those colors) and tried to fill and then wipe off but it left some residue behind and in the small pores.
Then it was suggested using hair spray before engraving, color fill with the acrylic. I got better residue results but getting the hairspray off is a slow process that requires a lot of rubbing = too long of a time.
I am now onto the Elmer's wood filler - which actually works well. So I think I'm set with white. I also read on here that I can put the acrylic paint into the wood filler.
So I guess my question would be is how much and do you guys think that it would leave the residue of the paint behind?
I would use the above method for black, silver and gold.
I have also order a roll of the laser mask to compare results.
Which might serve my purpose the best. I'm looking for speed and nice results. The results don't have to be of a $400 piece for a customer. The bats will break and as long as they look good I'm happy.
Thanks for your input and help dating all the way back to 2007.