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william kennington
06-11-2007, 9:24 PM
Hello Sawmill Creek Gang, I am looking for a 2 ply laserable plastic for name badges. The problem is I can't seem to find 1/16 laserable plastic in a regular gold that engraves black. Lots of brushed colors it seems like. Any recommendations on where to look? The customer wants just a regular gold/black not the brushed look. I have looked at Johnson Plastics but seems its only rotory stuff available in that color. Any suggestions?
Thanks for your help in advance. I am new to the laser technology, will any of the rotory plastic engrave ok with the laser?

Pinnacle M30 Corel Draw X3

Scott Shepherd
06-11-2007, 9:40 PM
Gold as in a flat gold appearance, or as in a mirror gold appearance?

I have lasered rotary engraving material with limited success. It has a thicker cap sheet, so doesn't cut as easy. I had to run it a couple of times. It can also be a little bit of a problem when vector cutting, but it's all stuff you can work around if you have only a couple to do. That's my limited knowledge of working with it. Maybe someone else can expland on it.

william kennington
06-11-2007, 10:06 PM
Scott, thanks for the info. Flat gold or a satin gold is what I am looking for. I didn't think the rotory stuff would work well either based on what I have read here on the forum. Thanks!

Larry Bratton
06-11-2007, 10:41 PM
William:
Rowmark makes Laserlights in a glossy gold S74 Sm Gold/Black which is .004 thick. Bond it to an acrylic back and I think that will work for you. It is really thin and I don't see that it would be a problem to do that.
I would get a sample first and try it though. Good luck!

Rodne Gold
06-12-2007, 12:55 AM
Why not just spray paint black acrylic and laser thru the paint . Basicallly the same thing as the laminated stuff , most likely more hard wearing too.

Mike Null
06-12-2007, 6:55 AM
Go to Johnson Plastics and look at LZ992G for gloss or M for matte. They have both in 1/16" laserable material. This material is made by IPI and is also rotary engravable.

william kennington
06-12-2007, 7:39 PM
Thanks Mike and to others for the response.

Bill Cunningham
06-12-2007, 10:26 PM
You can rotary engrave the laser stuff, but not all the rotary stuff is laser engravable.. It's not just the thickness of the cap, they are two entirely different types of plastic, and the rotary stuff reacts to heat by warping/smoking/stinking etc.. Sometimes you can do multiple light passes and get away with it, but not always.. It's usually more trouble to laser than it's worth...

william kennington
06-13-2007, 6:45 AM
Thanks Bill. I think I will just stick to Laserable Plastic.

Joe Pelonio
06-13-2007, 8:04 AM
I have a few regular jobs that are colors not available in laserable. I can engrave them in one pass, using settings slower and more power than normal, and for cutting use the regular settings but make two passes. The engraving looks fine, the cutting actually comes out better than laserable, no sticky edges. I use Rowmark. For example the light grey with blue subsurface, and the white with burgundy subsurface. Yesterday I needed some brown in a hurry, and had none, so I sprayed of sheet of the all-white Rowmark ADA with brown Rustoleum, then engraved and cut it and it worked great.

william kennington
06-14-2007, 6:42 AM
Thanks Joe for the information. Maybe I will give it a try. Any reason you used Rustoleum paint instead of a standard laquer or enamel spray?

Joe Pelonio
06-14-2007, 8:30 AM
It's what I had in my spraypaint bin in brown, that's all. Normally I would use the Krylon Fusion if it came in the right color but didn't want to have to drive to the store. It just takes longer to dry, but otherwise worked fine.