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Ric Taylor
06-22-2012, 6:10 PM
I made my first attempt to engrave and cut Rowmark today. I was using the 1/16 Laser Max matt black over gold.

I started off with the recommended laser settings on the Rowmark website, but they turned out to be way off for my machine, which let to a lot of testing. It took quite awhile to come up with settings that seemed to work for me.

I was expecting to engrave through the cap layer and see the gold below, similar to anodized aluminum. When I did that, I only saw a pale tan color. After a great deal of experimenting, I finally had to engrave very deeply, almost coming through the back side, to see any gold color, and then it was dull without much color. Not at all like the brilliant gold color on the back of the sheet.

Flipping my workpiece over, I can see that I nearly went through the back side, but any less than that didn't have any gold color. I didn't see any help for this on the Rowmark website.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Ric

Paul Phillips
06-22-2012, 6:38 PM
Ric, it took me awhile to get the hang of Lasering Rowmark also, but I've found that doing 2 light passes seems to work good, first pass with just enough power to get through the cap layer and then a second pass with a little less power, (I use 100sp on this pass) for some reason the first pass seems to leave some meltback/residue, but a light second pass should solve this.
Hope this helps,
Paul

Scott Shepherd
06-22-2012, 7:39 PM
I agree with Paul, first off, I believe the most common mistake laser users do is using way too much power. With 60W, it doesn't take but about 15% power to get through the cap sheet. On some colors, you almost have to run it twice. Red and blue are two colors that are famous for that.

Also, the gold won't EVER look like it does on the back. So just forget hoping it will. It won't. It'll always be a dull looking gold color. If you want shiny, you'll have to use a different material, like painted brass and laser through the paint.

You didn't do anything wrong (other than run it though to the other side). Just two light passes. What you see after that is what you get.

Mark Sipes
06-22-2012, 8:05 PM
Also, 2 passes but I take the second pass out of focus with less power to reduce the ridges and get more of a melting effect which brings the color out.

Mike Null
06-23-2012, 6:53 AM
I don't use two passes but I definitely agree about the disappointing color. Interestingly, on the 1/32" the color looks better. I generally use IPI rather than Rowmark as I like a couple of the colors better and I think it's easier to cut. But before you switch, most people think that's a chocolate or vanilla kind of thing.

Craig Matheny
06-23-2012, 1:18 PM
All I know is I had the same issues and changed to IPI and the color was better and looked real good but still cannot get past the smell.

Ric Taylor
06-24-2012, 10:47 PM
Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions. I tried again using that information. I did come up with the results that you described, but I'm still very disappointed with the color. I don't see how anyone could say that the dull light tan color is gold.

Thanks,

Ric

Rodne Gold
06-25-2012, 1:41 AM
If you want a really nice gold colour (in fact you have a multitude of gold's to choose from) Rather engrave into thin black acrylic and fill with Rub n buff , gilders paste , metallic waxes (found at hobby shops) or just paint fill with a nice gold spray paint ...
The only "nice" gold I have ever got with engraving gold substrate with a black cap (plastics - coated brass works well) is with spectrum lights - that thin self adhesive laminate - dunno what Rowmark call it - Laser lights?