Looking for ideas as to how to clean plastic key tags quickly

[Pat Kearney]

I am currently working on a job that involves using the laser to engrave and cut 500 (250 red/white and 250 yellow/black) keychains/tags from engravers plastic. The keychains are approx 1" x 2". If this job goes well then I may have another 1000+ of these to do.

Problem is after the laser cuts the plastic, especially on the yellow ones with the black, the residue left on the top layer requires a lot of work to clean each individual unit with a cloth using a solvent (I am using Goo-Gone). Can anyone suggest a quick method of cleaning many of these at one time? I am thinking put some fine sand in a small 1 gallon size bucket along with a solvent such as varasol and the plastic pieces, then place a sealed lid on the top. Then using some method, I'm not sure how yet, rotate the container on it's side for a period of time to "scrub" the plastic clean. Then after this separate the plastic and rinse using clean varasol and let dry. Not sure if this would work but I am willing to try anything to cut down on the endless hours of cleaning these pieces.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.
PAT

[Mark Plotkin]

pat,

i do quite a few name badges with plasitic. I do the vector cuts with the protective layer on from the back, then romove the protective layer and engrave on the front. It does take some time to remove but then you have a super clean piece and the engraving leaves very little to clean which I use windex.

[Laura Zaruba]

I've used Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. It still takes some time but not as much as like with Goo Gone and it seems to work pretty well.

Laura

[Scott Shepherd]

The few things I have done like that, where many parts are made of the same sheet, I set it up so the vector cut doesn't go all the way through. You can see the vector cut line from the backside, it's that close to being all the way through, but it's not all the way through.

I take the entire sheet, spray it with a citrus based cleaner, and wipe the entire sheet off at once. Then I can just pop all the pieces out very easily. I came to that method after cleaning each piece one at a time and not liking it very much either :)

[Bill Cunningham]

The few things I have done like that, where many parts are made of the same sheet, I set it up so the vector cut doesn't go all the way through. You can see the vector cut line from the backside, it's that close to being all the way through, but it's not all the way through.

I take the entire sheet, spray it with a citrus based cleaner, and wipe the entire sheet off at once. Then I can just pop all the pieces out very easily. I came to that method after cleaning each piece one at a time and not liking it very much either :)

Yup.. Do what Scott says.. I virtually never cut all the way through on engravers stock.. After all the engraving, I usually do a high speed vector cut on all the pieces so it 'almost' goes all the way through, then clean the entire sheet.. If you have a number of sheets to do, do them all, clean them all, then sit down and pop them all out of the sheets.. The only part you would have to cut all the way through is the hole for the key chain or ring.. The scored parts, usually come away clean. Laser plastic laser scores, and breaks apart 'much' easier and cleaner than the older stock ever did...

[Joe Pelonio]

Transfer tape on the front and they cut clean.

Soak in a solvent and the top color will come off. Even scrubbing hard with a citrus based cleaner will eat into the surface.

[Pat Kearney]

Laura, my wife had a Magic Eraser upstairs in the cupboard upstairs so since I already had about 200 of the key chains already cut out and I was facing the task of scrubbing each one with the Goo-Gone I figured what the heck, I'll try the Magic Eraser. I can only say the results were unbelieveable, especially on the yeallow and black plastic. I just cleaned 75 of the keychain pieces in about 20% of the time it took me with the Goo-Gone plus there is no mess (except for a little dust from the eraser tearing apart) and no fumes. I'm converted. Got to get back to it now-thanks Laura and everyone else for the great info.

[Laura Zaruba]

Glad to hear it! Yeah, the only trouble is the eraser breaking off but it's a small price to pay I suppose. I buy a box of them whenever they're on sale because they are great for so many applications.

[Bob Cole]

What do you do about the gooey edges?

I just ran a several name plates and thought I would go quick with taking the film off. Then run the laser to engrave and cut in one job. I was told/taught/read it was best to leave the film on, laser from the back, pop out the piece peel the film off and raster.

Most of the color combinations were fine using the engrave/cut in same run method until I got to the yellow/black and white/black ones. Horrible mess on the front and when I picked it up with my hands, the sides were a little gooey and I got more black stuff on the front. Since i had already pulled the film off, I couldn't run it again so tried putting the tape down but that didn't work either. I finally resorted to putting on the tape and running water over the tape, then vector, peel the tape off, and raster. This worked until my fingers touched the sides again and I mistakenly got some of the black stuff on the front. This was also compounded by me stacking the name plates on top of each other. The plates with the black backing was the worst and would get on the other plates.

What do you do to get rid of the tacky/gooey edges on the name plates (2-ply)? I see people clean them with Citrus based cleaner but that didn't do anything for the edges. I've adjusted my settings to see if I can make the edges less prone, but haven't found a combination that will work.

ULS book has 100pwr, 4%spd, 1000ppi to cut. I modified this to 10%spd and had less flaming, but edges are still tacky/gooey.

Also, anyway to reduce the acrylic burn smell? I delivered the name plates to the customer and that is one of the first things they noticed. I told them that some people like smells like that and that I am working on a cologne/perfume. Just thought there might be a trick of the trade to deliver the product sticky and smell free.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Joe Pelonio]

One guy I know cuts the material on his rotary, then uses the laser to do the engraving because of the edge stickiness and smell.

It's not cheap, but I do have a nice smelling product that I use on them when the edges do have to be clean and smell better. It's called "Rapid Remover" and is used in the sign business to remove the adhesive after peeling off vinyl lettering. After trying everything else this works the best. I will engrave, then apply transfer tape, then cut, clean the edges, then peel. The transfer tape when it comes off takes any residue from the engraving off with it. At my sign supply I get it for $30/gallon, they also have a quart for $12.


http://www.rapidtac.com/products/remover.html

[Scott Shepherd]

Gooey edges are wiped out by using Denatured Alcohol. Get yourself a small can of it, it works wonders.

In the original question, what I tend to do more now, it to raster, then remove the sheet, apply transfer tape, then place back in the machine and vector cut.

I still have to wipe them with denatured alcohol, but you end up with clean, non-sticky parts.

[Joe Pelonio]

Gooey edges are wiped out by using Denatured Alcohol. Get yourself a small can of it, it works wonders.

In the original question, what I tend to do more now, it to raster, then remove the sheet, apply transfer tape, then place back in the machine and vector cut.

I still have to wipe them with denatured alcohol, but you end up with clean, non-sticky parts.
The only trouble with that is it's acrylic, so the edges can crack from denatured alcohol. That thin maybe it's not noticeable. Also, if you use it on the surface of the acrylic it can turn the powdery residue into paint. Try running some red on white Rowmark, then wipe with D.A., the letters turn pink.

[Scott Shepherd]

Joe, I don't use it on the letters. I mask them and then vector cut, so the only sticky part are the edges, which I do wipe. I've not noticed any crazing on any two ply material that I've done. I'll look close at it the next time I use it.

[Mike Null]

Name tags and nameplates are the bulk of my business. I cut all the way through and do not use a mask feeling that it takes more time than it's worth.

My favorite solvent is denatured alcohol which I buy by the gallon.

I have a friend who recently did several thousand pieces of black/yellow and found that the dishwasher did the cleanup pretty well.

[Bob Cole]

Thanks for the posts. I purchased a quart of the DNA at HD and will try it on the edges. Don't know if the wife will let me near the dishwasher again since the last time it needed to be "fixed". If I can sneak in and use the dishwasher, do you just run it on handwash and no detergent?

I think what is also happening is the cut line on the vector table whenever the honeycomb edges meet the underside gets gooey. I made the mistake of stacking the name plates on top of each other and the bottoms of the black plates got on the face of the plates underneath. Didn't seem to do this on any of the white, only black bottoms.

Do you have a jig setup or a way to easily raise the acrylic off the table to avoid the flash back? I've tried to use little pieces of .5" acrylic and strategically place them, but is real tedious and don't always get the acrylic out of the way of the cut line. For the job I did, I got lazy and didn't raise the acrylic. I think that may have been my big problem for bottoms getting on the tops.

[Barbara Buhse]

I have been cleaning small (plastic) peieces by the handful by throwing them in a basin with warm water and dishwashing liquid. (The kind used at the sink, not in the dishwasher) The only thing that takes a minute is drying them off. I don't let them soak, just wash them lightly with a soft sponge.

[Darren Pinkoski]

Thank God for the search function. We've had an Epilog 45 for a year and have been trying to figure out a way to clean the plastic tags we engrave. We found that GooGone did a good job cleaning the edges but smeared the surfaces residue back into the white lettering so we soaked the tags in a basin with warm water and a cleaner to get rid of the surface residue and then GooGone'd the edges after drying them off. I'll be sure to try the DNA and Magic Erasers. This has been our biggest headache. I'll be sure to give it a try.

[Anthony Welch]

We are currently doing a raster image with a vector cut on some LazerMax no bigger than 1.25"/ea. I've found that soaking 10 or so in a cup of isopropyl (70% alcohol) and rubbing each one with my fingers will lift the residue out of the rastered image, take the flame marks off the back and get rid of the sticky edges. All this with very little effort (no scrubbing). Then immediatly rinse in tap water.

Don't use a rag or towel, as these get dirty from what it takes off, fills back in the raster and you have to do it again with a cleaner part of the towel. No cracking or ill effects have been noticed as far as I can see.

Anthony

[Martin Boekers]

One thing you might want to watch is on the plates like red with white type.

Sometime the red dust created from the burn is on the top of the plate and its easy for it to get into the white burn area and slightly tint it.

So keep your erasers clean!


Marty

[Scott Erwin]

I do exactly as Scott S has said. On small runs/small sized area I just put the tape on in the machine as I missed the line up the first time (Raster) then removed the sheet put it back and low and behold had a nice way of how NOT to do it....