Looking for safe Tape to Cover Painted Surface

[Brian Rodenz]

I want to check to make sure that the blue painters tape or green frog tape is safe to use with a laser. The PVC caution scares the dickens out of me and I would hate to engrave something that has PVC in it.

Im trying to avoid the resin/clean up after engraving a painted surface. FYI, the paint I am using is Americana Latex Craft Paint.

[Jed Lawrie]

What material is underneath the paint? I use painters tape sometimes for wood.

[Kev Williams]

Before I laser most anything, I laser a piece of blue painters tape at low power first so I know everything's aligned and spelled right. No issues.

[Joe Pelonio]

I also use the blue 3M painters tape (it's safe) for critical alignment tests on customer items or expensive materials, using low power it engraves white nicely. When you have any doubt, look up the MSDS on any new material. While I have never used Frog tape, it's exempt from the MSDS requirement, because it's safe when used as directed in normal use. 3M has issued one for the blue tape as a courtesy due to a customer request and the result of burning shown is carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, both normal from burning wood or paper.

http://www.c2f.com/msds/MMM-PaintersTape.pdf

[Mitchell Tutty]

I check my alignment completely differently.

I cut up all the old mdf waste boards we use on our CNC router into my laser bed size and for every job I do, I lightly vector the outline of the shape onto the mdf, then place what ever it is I'm engraving on the mdf and line it up with the outline I just made. Then all you have to do is ensure everything is correctly aligned within Corel and you're problem free. Saves a lot of time masking everything with painters tape.

[Brian Rodenz]

Ok, thank you, I'll get some wide blue painters tape and work with that when needed. Underneath the paint is wood.

Its something new so I wanted to double check that it wont cause any issues for me.

I've looked at a few MSDS papers, they are sometimes more scary and confusing than anything...not really sure what I'm looking for which would cause damage to the machine or me.

[Joe Pelonio]

Look for the words vinyl or chloride in the material content, and the words corrosive, toxic or fatal gases on the section on burning. Here is an example:

http://www.fishersci.com/ecomm/servlet/msdsproxy?productName=AC183320010&productDescription=POLY