Colored Laering - Homebrew Style!

[Allan Wright]

Check out this engraving I did last night (attached below, note the flag stripes and the curved text are a different color). I covered the entire piece with regular white masking tape to keep the finish nice and keep the smoke/resin from the wood burn off the finished piece.

Since I was using a greyscale image, the lighter areas, when engraving, left the glue residue from the tape on the piece, therefore coloring it a tan color. I've since cleaned the glue residue off the piece (looks uniform now) but this got me thinking.....

What about using colored paper/plastics/films at low power settings to color pieces by thermally bonding the overlay to the piece? Has anyone done this? My thoughts were place the object, do a regular engraving, and then without moving it, re-laser at low power with a colored overlay material letting the laser bond it to the previously lasered area.

It might take a while to find or develop the right materials, but this seems interesting to me.

Thoughts? Am I nuts?

[Adam Stacey]

One of our printers uses thermal foil, which I have tried to apply in a similar way. It is a fine line between completely burning off the foil and actually getting it to stick, and even then the results weren't very good. It would probably help if the foil were thicker, like 1/64" thick. Maybe I'll try using multiple layers of it.

[Rodne Gold]

You will need pressure and dwell time , the laser wont do either.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'd be easier to mask, engrave, spray paint... repeat... each new color. (A carefully made registration jig is needed) This works very well and the technology has been around for centuries. Using a laser as a stencil tool instead of an exacto knife is the new wrinkle.

[Kim Vellore]

Just a thought if it is colored liquid glue based then the laser will dry the liquid making the pigments stick, might be same as mask, laser and spray paint it.

Kim

[Joe Pelonio]

Actually that's not a bad idea, just difficult to achieve. You could experiment with layers of different colors of paint, the problem is to have consistent thickness on the layers of paint, then to be able to engrave through just the first, then just the 1st and second and so on.

I once did an experiment with this using layers of colored sign vinyl which is 2 mil thickness, and it works, except that in order to get the adhesive from the first layer off you have to either engrave slightly into the second, which gives a colored but engraved (rough) look, or to remain glossy engrave just into the adhesive and clean it off with adhesive remover. Your substrate has to be perfectly level and the focus perfect.

Then there's the issue of PVC in vinyl. One could use clear poly film, spray painted, as long as the adhesive remover didn't mar or remove the paint on the next layer, and then you're back to the paint thickness problem.

[Darren Null]

How about very thin acrylic BACKED with coloured foil (or whatever effect desired), cut to fit into the engraved bit, veneering style?

[Stephen Beckham]

Allan - as I've discovered - we're mostly nuts around here - so welcome aboard!

I was thinking about this yesterday and tried something very unique that goes along these lines.

Most of us use Black Leather Dye to color fill Walnut and Cherry Etchings (if you don't, you should try it :) )

Looking for the next step, I stole my daughter's Window Paint for the car. She had two of them (white and green for school colors) and they have the sponge daubers that the dye has on it.

I seperated my image into three - lasered the first and inked it up green. Masked the whole thing, did a second layer and inked it up white. Removed the mask and then lasered the rest of the item for the contrasting brown. I was trying to get the School's logo in the plaque.

Note: Missing photo :eek: - it didn't come out as planned. Anyway - I thought I would put this one the Creek and let you guys mull it over, maybe refine the process/steps. What I found was that the color filled steps in one and two should be solid lines as much as possible so you're not pulling off pixel sized masking. Also - connecting lines should be same color or there should be a small line between colors left as a barrier or damn against the color spilling over. All in all, not a bad attempt...

The good thing is that those color markers are water soluable to wash off the windows. It won't stick to the unetched part of your project and they come in many colors.

I'd also thought about the colored inkers for Bingo card marking... They're not water soluable - so they might bleed over more and stick to the surface more.

Thoughts? Poor man's Atomic Art maybe???

[Allan Wright]

I wonder how little power it would take to get colored laser-printer toner to stick?

[Craig Hogarth]

I wonder how little power it would take to get colored laser-printer toner to stick?

I've been working this for a couple months now with no success. I've tried every setting imaginable and it's never enough or too much.

What does work well is black toner as color fill. On Alder, it gets down into the wood and you don't have to cook it in. Just brush it in hard. You can't tell it's been color filled and looks like burnt wood. Also works well for small text on pens.

[Bill Cunningham]

Coloured laser toners brushed in the same way should give you a tone to your wood engravings. The natural resin in the wood also helps the toner stick.. I have also used this fairly often with black toner, but you do have to be sure there is no open grain, the toner will fill it and you will never get it out..