Colorfill for dummies

[Scott Shepherd]

When I was a kid, my Dad had a rotary engraving machine he used as a side business. I remember him doing items that needed to be filled with color. At the time, he had old phone books and he's open one up after applying the paint to the letters, and he'd put some solvent (paint thinner?) on the pages of the open phonebook and he'd drag the item face down across it, which would take all the paint off the face and leave it in the letters. I used to help him do this, and I always remember it being easy.

Fast forward 30 years and here I am trying to understand how the heck you colorfill anything.

I've tried the obvious like smearing the paint all over the face and letters and then trying to wipe it off, which never works for me. I always seem to wipe off paint that's down inside the letters.

I see people mention it all the time, yet darned if I can understand how people are doing it today.

Can someone explain a basic technique for colorfilling a simple item?

[Mike Null]

First, let it set just a little then take a business card and scrape the paint off. Then let it set a little longer take a business card with a little solvent on the edge and remove as much as you can. Later remove any remnants with a rag wrapped tightly around a plastic or wood piece and use a little solvent.

I like acrylic enamel because it sets quickly and removes with water or after it's set with alcohol. If you let it dry you'll have a devil of a time removing it.

[Nancy Laird]

Scott, FIRST rule is to make sure that your item to be lasered is finished. We use lacquer, but you can use whatever you want to use to get the finish you want.

Laser the piece, and then wipe it down with a good-quality wax formulated for wood floors; that does two things, removed any smoke/soot/flare from the piece, and seals the ends of the grain where you've cut into it with the laser to keep the paint from bleeding.

Using a battery-operated toothbrush or something similar, push the paint into the lasered areas (use a good artist's acrylic - Liquitex Basics is good) and let dry for only a couple of moments. Wipe off the excess paint from the surface of your piece ACROSS THE GRAIN, using a very light wiping action. Let dry for a couple of hours (overnight is better), then wax the piece again to remove any paint smears or film.

Voila!! You're done. Now, wasn't that easy??

Of course, there will be others on here who do it differently. One method is to engrave through a mask and color-fill before removing the mask--but you always run the risk of having the paint bleed and work its way under the mask. The key to our method is the wax. The paint comes right off the unlasered portion and we don't get any bleed.

Nancy

[Craig Hogarth]

How much do you guys charge extra for color fill?

[Nancy Laird]

Craig, we don't charge "extra" for color fill. We consider that as part of the work to finish a plaque, etc., ready for delivery. For example, we manufacture our own plaque blanks from maple in 3 sizes: 6x8, 7x9, and 8x10. They sell - blank - for $11, $14, and $17. If someone wants an engraved plaque, add $12 to the price of the plaque. If the plaque involves a lot of design time/importing a logo/etc., we charge our usual setup charge of $25.00. If it's just typing in words, we usually don't charge at all.

I'm sure that there are those who will find our prices (too) low, but that's okay. We're still making money.

The only thing we don't color-fill are the business cards and bookmarks from 1/32" Finland birch, and the veneer logos.

Nancy

[Frank Defert]

Nancy,

A question about the wax....

I laser a lot of wooden items and understand the need to finnish the wood before you laser ( the lacquer creates a splatter shield ), but then you say to wax the wood before you colour fill to prevent bleeding and seal the lasered edges, does the wax then not inhibit the paint from adhereing to the lasered image?
Could the wax be applied on top of the dry lacquer but before lasering, leaving a clean wax and lacquer free lasered image for the paint?

Thanks....Frank

[Nancy Laird]

Frank, the rastering removes enough of the surface of the wood so that the wax doesn't affect the adhesion of the acrylic paint. The only minor problem I've had is that sometimes when I do the after-paint wipe, some of the paint comes out of the rastered image, especially on larger areas, so I've learned to wipe very lightly ACROSS THE GRAIN and it stays in pretty well.

Waxing before lasering would be okay, except that you're still going to run into bleeding problems with the edges of the rastered areas because they aren't sealed.

I truly don't know exactly why it works, but it does. Here are a couple of pictures of plaques done in this manner, both of these are on birch--we've now moved to maple.

66481 66482

These were our first "big order" for the plaques, when we were very much newbies at this (we'd had the machine for all of 4 months). You'll notice that some of the large rastered portions are spotty with the paint--that was before we learned to wipe them across the grain. But these were done exactly as I have described.

Nancy

[Richard Rumancik]

. . . then you say to wax the wood before you colour fill to prevent bleeding and seal the lasered edges, does the wax then not inhibit the paint from adhereing to the lasered image?

Could the wax be applied on top of the dry lacquer but before lasering, leaving a clean wax and lacquer free lasered image for the paint?

Frank

Frank - I think that your concern is valid. Nancy says that in practice it hasn't been a problem for her, but there might be a few things that alleviate the problem. The lasered surface is quite pitted and perhaps the mechanical attachment is "good enough" that the paint doesn't come out even if there is some wax in there. Also, once the paint is in the recesses, there is little chance of someone doing something to dislodge it, as it is recessed. But I agree that technically wax on the surface to be painted is not ideal, as it will not be anchored to the walls of the recess. On the flip side, if you don't wax, then you run the risk of bleeding/wicking of the paint into the end grain which is exposed in the recesses. Ideally you only seal the end grain with wax (and not the bottom of the recess) but this is not really possible.

If you wax on top of the lacquer as you proposed, it won't seal the end grain. Then when you apply paint it will wick and you could end up with a mixture of paint and wax. So I don't know if this approach would work.

On one project, I masked the plaque, lasered through, sealed the end grain with clear lacquer, and followed it with black paint fill. But you have the added task of removing the masking. It can take a while if there is a lot of lettering. I don't know if you could apply lacquer without masking as it would probably melt into the plaque surface and spoil it.

I think the end grain needs to be sealed with something, but sealing it with wax doesn't seen quite right to me if you want the best adhesion of the paint. Maybe there is something other than lacquer or wax that would work? A brush-on wipe-off product would be ideal.

Also: if you wax the plaque and then try to add a paper mask - you may find you can't get the masking to stick.

[Mike Null]

If I'm color filling wood I use lacquer following engraving and before the fill. I do that on all light colored woods. it is not necessary on walnut.

I do not engrave any wood that has not been finished prior to engraving.

[Richard Rumancik]

Mike - Are you saying you lacquer, engrave, re-lacquer and then color fill? How do you apply the lacquer after engraving? (spray?) And do you apply it to the entire surface after engraving?

[Richard Rumancik]

Scott, to respond more directly to your question: I have seen your method referred to in several articles in trade mags but have not used it. They describe a phone book soaked in "solvent" and then wipe an item on a page, then flip to a new page when the page is used.

For acrylic paints I don't know what would be recommended for a solvent as you don't need a hydrocarbon solvent (and should not use one) for acrylic paint. Water might just make the pages soggy and unusable.

I have had some success using coffee filters as a paper for wiping excess paint. You can flatten and apply solvent (for oil paints) or water and wipe the item face down as you would use the phone book. If you buy in a large package the cost isn't that significant.

If you are color filling acrylic with oil paint be careful using normal paint solvents or alcohol, as it may crack acrylic. Kerosene or aliphatic naphtha (like Coleman fuel) would be a better choice. Coleman fuel doesn't smell as bad - but use under ventilation in any case.

[Daryl Barberousse]

Scott,

I use the method that Nancy mentioned. I mask my plaque, laser, spray with sanding sealer, then spray with acrylic paint. A little more time consuming, but I am happy with the results.

[Mike Null]

Richard

The two methods I described in this thread are different. The first for plastics and phenolic is for color filling small areas of text or small logos. I do not suggest it is the right way for plaques.

I do not make my own plaques and the ones I buy have a lacquer finish pre- applied.. I engrave, lacquer the engraved area, color fill and use 3m pads to even out the plaque. I then use wax if I think it's necessary to improve the look of the plaque.

The lacquer I use is from a rattle can.

[Brian Robison]

Daryl,
where do you get a spray acrylic paint?
What brand?

Thanks

[Daryl Barberousse]

Brian,

I went to Ace Hardware and purchased my acrylic paint.

[Bill Cunningham]

Two other things also work if your only interested in black fill

Turtle wax color cure black.. Just brush it into the lasered portion of the finished wood, If your using oak, make sure you have filled the grain with lacquer etc. or you will tint the grain with colour. Then, just let it dry, and wipe off the excess.. The dry color cure will not stick to a finished surface, wipes off clean with a dry cloth and it does not bleed.. The second one is ordinary photo copy toner, again, the wood must be finished.. Just brush the toner into the engraving.. If it's fine engraving and no large areas your done.. The oil and fine surface roughness of the lasered area will hold the toner, and it won't come out.. OR, you can simply pop it back in the laser, turn the power way down, and finish cook the toner.. If you can find coloured toner, you can colour your work using ths process.. I use paint, only when I can't use black for fill