Rubber Bracelet Question

[Rose Hamacher]

Hi all,

I am trying to engrave the rubber and the result is a good depth but ugly brown color. I know this is probably a dumb question, but it there anyway to get around this? :confused:

I actually ordered the rubber from Rio Grande in 10 meter lengths and some sterling fittings to (hopefully) make some upscale versions of the rubber bracelets.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated -

Thanks ,
Rose Hamacher

[Alan Young]

I don't have much advise but I tried some of the blank bands I purchaed from Walmart and did not have any trouble with them. I have a 30 watt laser and ran them on 70s and 50p. They could have been a little deeper so I guess I could have run them again or tried a different power setting but I only tried once. I need to create a jig to hold them better.


Alan

[Robert Edwards]

Rose,

The brown coloring can occur for a few different reasons: contents of the rubber (what's it made of?) and/or the brown can be your laser burning the the rubber. When rubber is created, from stratch, there are ususally several compounds involved. Some compounds react well to lasers, others do not. As I've writtne in an earlier thread, we experimented with a lot of bands and different materials and found that they ranged from high quality reproduction to ones that would catch fire. Pretty wide spectrum.

There is only two ways to know if the material is going to work for you: you can either get material that has been tried and tested as laser engravable or you can experiment until you find the right product.

Hope that helps.

Robert Edwards
Owner
SpiritBands, LLC
"If it doesn't say SpiritBands, it's just a wristband."
SpiritBands is a trademark of SpiritBands, LLC.

[Rose Hamacher]

Alan and Robert,

Thanks for your thoughts. The material just says 'rubber' without any further description. I do have some 'real' bands ordered from Spiritbands.com so I expect those will work nicely according to other comments in this forum.

I guess I will just put this other rubber together and not engrave them. . although maybe I can make some little charms from acrylic to hang from them.

Regards,
Rose

[Steve Spaulding]

Try a mixture of Simple Green and Goo Gone. Both available most anywhere.


I have found that when combined, it leaves rubber (as in stamps) very close to the original color. Should work for your material.

Even does a nice job on the Spirit Bands which may produce a white dust.

We created a simple fixture (which is being modified with the next bright idea) that allows the bands to be engraved on both sides of the band without removing the band. This also serves very nicly as a means to spray and clean the bands quickly.

Hope this helps your application.

Steve in Green Bay
www.isssales.com (http://www.isssales.com)

[Robert Edwards]

Simple Green will work, much like Murphy's Oil Soap (our preferred cleaner), Ivory liquid, windex and several others. The reasons the cleaners work is that they trap the dust particle and the scrubing action agitates them out of the grooves, and water washes it away. I would need to test the Goo Gone product and review it's ingredients. Bare in mind that many prodcuts work by using petro-based substances, if these get on your silicone wristbands, they are history. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but very shortly thereafter. Because silicone wristbands are a combination of oils, sand and heat, petro-based products or products containing certian oils and chemcials can make the silicone come "unbonded".

Here are the warning signs that your bands are in danger:


They are shiney after using a cleanser on them
They feel "oily"
They feel hard or stiff
They break
They discolor
The most important thing to keep on mind is that some chemicals maybe absorbed by the silicone band and then leeched out at a later time; after you sell it to a customer. This is why we have stuck with Murphy's Oil Soap, it's made with Vegitable Oil and so far, knock on wood, all has gone well.

I'd love to hear others comments on this.

Thanks for listening, oops, I mean reading.

[Rose Hamacher]

I appreciate all the cleaning advice. I received my spirit bands and have had great success both engraving and cleaning them. One thing different about the rubber I ordered from Rio Grande is that it is not stretchy at all; I have not tried engraving it again since the first unsuccessful attempt.

Which brings me to my next question - how much do any of you charge for the engraved bracelets? I have had several kids eager to get their own personalized bracelets but think the price is outrageous when I tell them $3.50. Is this price too high? Of course, these are the same kids who can go to Wal-Mart and get them a whole lot cheaper and don't understand the personalization is added value.

Regards,
Rose

[Rick Maitland]

Robert thank you for your input on this subject. We have not tried Murphy's Oil Soap. Do you just let the bands soke in the oil and it cleans them, or do you still have to scrub them down? Do you add water or enything else in with the oil? I also wanted to try my gas powered pressure sprayer, do you think that would work ok? I know that may seem like over kill, but we are spending more time cleaning than anything else. Our bands leave behind the white powder that is very difficult to get out of the corners of the engraved areas. Thanks again!!

[Robert Edwards]

Rose,

As far as pricing is concerned, hold on to your hat! I have a distributor in the northeast that sells personalized bands for, ready??? $6.50 each! And he sells between 50-150 per day. $3.50 is not too much. We do engrave and sell in minimum batches of 25 (don't want to get into the single band business) for $2.00 each and then $1.50 each for 50-500 and $1.25 each or 501-1000 and $1.00 for 1001-2500.

Rick,

As far as cleaning. We have a small bowl of water and Murphy's sitting on the table beside the wash tub. We rinse the bands off while they are on our fixture with warm water and then scrub them with a nail brush and the diluted Murphy's soap, rinse them again, dry and then inspect. Sometimes a second dry brush is needed. A power washer works wonders! Before we moved into an office, I used a 1300psi power washer at home, cleans them beautifully, single pass.

The whole residue thing is due to the laser energizing the bands and creating static electricity. The white dust, which is very fine, sticks to the bands becasue they are very energized. Try this, blow up a balloon, rub it on your shirt, pants or whatever and hold over dirty bands, or open the lid to your laser (with it NOT running) and hold it near the engraving table. See the dust collect? Neat huh?!?

Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!