SS cofee mug and waterbottle question

[Chad Fitzgerald]

I got some of these from jds, i like them, they look nice, HOWEVER, the engraving doesnt "stand out" as much as i would like. Im down to the SS clean, it just doesnt seem to have enough contrast to see it real nice. Any suggestions as to a way to make it stand out more without alot of extra work, would love to keep them reasonably priced. If the engraving was white i think it would really pop.
Any thoughts??
thanks

[David Rust]

I just processed an order of 65 25 oz. water bottles for the local high school. It had their name, logo and "faculty" or "staff" on the bottom. They were all red bottles from JDS. I think the contrast was great. The customer loved them...
Is the problem with the artwork? I also processed a few other color water bottles with my logo and name as samples, they all look good also.
Look at the Epilog site, they have a tutorial and a downloadable CorelDraw file with a design for ss water bottle... I used that design on a green ss water bottle, that also looked good.
Can you post a pic?

[Tucker Alford]

I did 250 in black & was not happy with the contrast. I found cleaning up with mineral spirits did brighten the engraved area somewhat but the base metal does not appear to be "bright".

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[David Rust]

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Here are the bottles I did... Maybe the bottle color makes a difference.
My pic isn't the greatest, I need to set up a spot for pictures with proper lighting...

[Tucker Alford]

I wonder if they changed the coatings. My silver comes out looking just like a piece of black non laserable 12x24 stock aluminum.

[David Rust]

Tucker,

I pulled down the black SS water bottle that I did a month ago... It is similar to your finish, a closer look appears to have the etched portions of the different colored bottles (red, orange, green, purple and black) about the same. With the brighter colored bottles the "dull" etched portion doesn't seem to stand out as much. hmmm.....

[Chad Fitzgerald]

i will post a pic but wont be til this weekend.
the red bottle looks nice, the black one imo looks nice also. I didnt do the red yet, will do today to see what that looks like.
the black and green i did do looks good as long as the lighting is real good and your looking "close up". But setting it out on display it by no means "stands out" to where it would catch someones eye. telling someone they have to look closer isnt a great selling point.
i had simple text on on and a photo on another. shouldnt be anything wrong with either. they are both copies i have run on anodized aluminum and came out great.
this is my first time using ss, is it just the finish of the ss that wont "pop" against the bright color coating?

Looking at it through a magnifing glass to make sure i have removed all the color, i have, down to clean ss.

[Martin Boekers]

I found that a Magic Sponge and Windex will take any color that hasn't vaporized down to the silver base. You have to remember, it won't get any brighter
then the base stainless. That's always going to be a light grey. If you find that different colors have a different stainless base, that's a whole different issue
and I would contact JDS on that. They are great to work through problems with. Some of these products are what they are and sometimes we expect too
much from them. On Quatities I always do a sample first for the client to approve, that resolves most issues. If you are not happy with the bottles stay away
from the flasks as they will give similar results.


Try the sponge clean up as the first time I did these I ran 3-4 passes and they still carried a cast. These sponges did the trick and didn't damage the surface.

[Mike Null]

I use dna for cleaning. It does make a difference.

[Chad Fitzgerald]

i spoke with jds yesterday. they are very helpful.
she recommended cleaning with lighter fluid first, they do this with all of theres.
the blue ones she said to also wipe softly with acetone(but be careful cause this can remove some color)
havent tried either, have to get some of each. wanted to pass it along.

[Mike Null]

Chad

Be careful with acetone as it attacks many of the finishes we work with as engravers.