Bright blue color fill on acrylic..help!!!

[Rebecca Leedy]

I am trying to color fill a logo reverse engraved on acrylic. I apply it according to directions and wait the specified amount of time to dry. When I try to clean the excess off, it ends up pulling color out of the rastered design. Is the design not rastered deep enough? Is bright blue color fill the work of satan? I'm not sure but I look to you, my fellow laser-ites to lead me down the path toward colored acrylic nirvana.
Thank you for your help in advance
Sincerely,
Becky Leedy-
extremely frustrated laser engraver

[Shaddy Dedmore]

Have you tried etching through paper tape mask, then apply fill? THen take mask off (probably when still wet).

Otherwise I don't have any hints (sorry).

Shaddy

[Rodne Gold]

Depends on the paint you use to fill , how you are wiping excess , with what solvents and clothes you are doing so and the depth of engraving.
If you can answer the first 3 for me , I'll give you some hints how to proceed without having problems.

[Rebecca Leedy]

Rodne-
I am using LaserBits Bright Blue Color Fill for acrylic. I am wiping it off with isopropyl alcohol using either a flannel cloth or a paper towel (even the alcohol pads nurses use to swab skin prior to a shot).I have tried rastering through masking tape and deep engraving. It seems as though the blue just seems thicker than the black or the gold that I have. Can you color fill with any other paint (like regular acrylic craft paint?) Can I thin this with anything?
Thanks for your help.
Becky

[Joe Pelonio]

Mask it, engrave, then use Krylon "for plastic". It will stick and you can spray it with 2-3 light coats so it doesn't bleed under the masking. There
may not be a really good selection, if there's not a good enough blue, use their clear "primer for plastic" then a regular Krylon color.

[Rodne Gold]

Whatever you do , do not fill with a Solvent based paint , it is guaranteed to stress craze the acrylic inside the engraving. Using solvents on lasered acrylic is very problematic , try not to do so. Solvents are also often not good for long term useage , meths is aborbed thru the skin and is a cumulative poison , benziene is carcinogenic etc. Turps is normally ok.
for filling , use water based acrylic paints. Ideally you should use Extruded (cheaper) acrylic for reverse filling as it doesnt frost when engraving , this will give a fill with much more vibrance and pop (when viewing from the front)
Use a lint free cloth , t shirt material is good, wrapped around a wood block or scrap piece of pex for water clean up. You get a dead flat large area surface that wont pull the paint out the engaving. Ideally you want to clean up as much as possible prior to paint drying so when filling use some card cut with a nice straight edge to scrape away almost all the excess.
Hope this helps
Regards.

[Joe Pelonio]

Rodne,

I'm glad you brought that up, if anyone wants to see what happens rub the edge of freshly vector cut acrylic with denatured alcohol, it will crack right before your eyes.

I've never had stress cracking from the Krylon, even use it to paint cut acylic letters. Again, I always use several really light coats, it may be that one real wet heavy coat could crack it. Actually I have only seen the cracking after vector cutting, not from engraving. It may be that the
rastor process is not actually changing the molecular structure like cutting.

[Rebecca Leedy]

Thanks for the help guys!! I really appreciate it!
Becky