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View Full Version : Ok, what about beeswax??/exhaust/cleaning protocol?



Barb Macdonald
11-28-2007, 7:38 PM
Thanks very much to Nancy Laird!!!!!!!and I apologize for not searching through the forum, before I posted yet another question on Floor Wax. I just e-mailed myself a post NL wrote on lasering & filling wood, again. (The people on this forum make my day, everytime!!)I haven't gotten to Home Depot yet for "good quality floor wax", or Michael's for acrylic paints, trying to use what's near and available. I'm not a huge fan of my car. I now own some pure beeswax, would that work? Liquify, and apply? Sounds like it couldn't do much else besides be a wax? (get it?;) I betcha it'll smell nice, anyway:) All of the waxes I've found also include a cleaner/solvent, which attacks the finish, when I applied it after lasering.
It's not really a finishing question, is it? It's a lasering ??? I'm a huge fan of minimal steps, time is $$
Am I trying to get the wax into the letters after engraving? Won't the wax repel the paint?
I also read a thread about lasering off the clear finish coat on wood before engraving, as a dark stained pine piece I did turned out beautifully, but the finish did seem to leave a (nice looking IMO) residue behind. Sort of like a honey coloured gum, which left the text quite dark. The image seemed to have a hard to describe but beautiful banding through it. Not banding like when the machine is unwell. My partner scratched away at the gum in four letters, and now the light pine shows through. Hmmm, better contrast, I guess I should have run it twice! But now I have to scratch the gum out of all the letters, and I really was happy enough with the sign in the first place:)

Oh, and all my questions are answered re: MDF, with a quick search, thanks again to all you brilliant people out there (where I found the post by Nancy, again)

I'm waiting for help with my exhaust, it's making me nervous about doing super dirty stuff, knowing I'm not removing as much as possible. I did some MDF, but didn't much like the glue "bloom" although it wiped off quite nicely.

How often to clean lenses mirrors/encoder strip/rails? The end of my day? Every day? I ran a 10 minute job with MDF, should I have cleaned before I went home to miss what some people called a snow storm?
I think I know the answer....
gotta run

Nancy Laird
11-28-2007, 8:27 PM
Thanks very much to Nancy Laird!!!!!!!and I apologize for not searching through the forum, before I posted yet another question on Floor Wax. I just e-mailed myself a post NL wrote on lasering & filling wood, again. (The people on this forum make my day, everytime!!)I haven't gotten to Home Depot yet for "good quality floor wax", or Michael's for acrylic paints, trying to use what's near and available. I'm not a huge fan of my car. I now own some pure beeswax, would that work? Liquify, and apply? Sounds like it couldn't do much else besides be a wax? (get it?;) I betcha it'll smell nice, anyway:) All of the waxes I've found also include a cleaner/solvent, which attacks the finish, when I applied it after lasering.
It's not really a finishing question, is it? It's a lasering ??? I'm a huge fan of minimal steps, time is $$
Am I trying to get the wax into the letters after engraving? Won't the wax repel the paint?
I also read a thread about lasering off the clear finish coat on wood before engraving, as a dark stained pine piece I did turned out beautifully, but the finish did seem to leave a (nice looking IMO) residue behind. Sort of like a honey coloured gum, which left the text quite dark. The image seemed to have a hard to describe but beautiful banding through it. Not banding like when the machine is unwell. My partner scratched away at the gum in four letters, and now the light pine shows through. Hmmm, better contrast, I guess I should have run it twice! But now I have to scratch the gum out of all the letters, and I really was happy enough with the sign in the first place:)

Oh, and all my questions are answered re: MDF, with a quick search, thanks again to all you brilliant people out there (where I found the post by Nancy, again)

I'm waiting for help with my exhaust, it's making me nervous about doing super dirty stuff, knowing I'm not removing as much as possible. I did some MDF, but didn't much like the glue "bloom" although it wiped off quite nicely.

How often to clean lenses mirrors/encoder strip/rails? The end of my day? Every day? I ran a 10 minute job with MDF, should I have cleaned before I went home to miss what some people called a snow storm?
I think I know the answer....
gotta run


Barb,

First of all, thank you for the plug. I like it when people appreciate what I have to say. So...several things:

1. The wax I'm using is Holloway House Professional Quick Shine. I have found it at Smith's grocery and at WalMart--I don't know if one of the BORGs will have it. According to the label, this stuff "gives your floors an instant, mirror-like gloss...developed from advanced polymer technology and...specifically formulated for gloss and durability in high traffic areas..." This isn't a "clean-and-wax" product--it's to be used on clean floors---so I'd guess that there isn't anything in it that will harm the finish on your plaque, etc. I haven't had any problems with it harming a finish---except on pens when I've used friction polish on the pen then try to color-fill.

Don't try the pure beeswax.

2. You can get the Liquitex Basics acrylics either at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

3. The wax will repel the paint on the unlasered part of your piece--it gets into the lasered portions and seals the grain "tubes" (I don't know what else to call them) so that you don't get any paint bleed into the unlasered wood.

4. The laser removes the finish coat on wood while it is engraving - you don't have to do a two-step process. Pine will leave a residue behind, because of all the pitch in it. It's why most people won't burn pine in a stove or fireplace--it leaves an ugly gummy residue.

5. You will always get burn flare or bloom if you are lasering wood - That is yet another reason to wax your piece, even if you aren't doing color fill. Waxing removes that bloom and leaves the piece nice and shiny and protects the wood.

6. Cleaning lenses/mirrors/strips/rails? I don't know about anyone else, but ours get cleaned about once every two weeks and we haven't had any problems. The biggest problem we had was when LOML forgot to put the little screws back into the lens then started engraving. Sure made for some funny-looking engraving. :confused::confused: Took us an hour to figure out why the engraving quality deteriorated drastically.

More questions? Feel free to put them here or to PM me--I'll answer what I can.

Nancy (23 days)

Barb Macdonald
11-30-2007, 1:08 PM
Ok, why not beeswax? I have to ask, don't I? I feel like I'm 12, I LIKE it!
Isn't it nature's best wax?
Just curious:)
Thanks for the brand names, I'll scurry over to the BORG nearby, once I get my rotary back to work.
Have a great weekend:)
Barb
epilog legend ext 60watt, xenetech rotaries, all sorts of stuff.....

Linda Creatore
12-03-2007, 12:32 AM
Hi,
I don't exactly know where this discussion originated, but I guess I can ask this question...:)...

Are we waxing the wood BEFORE lasering then wiping off (residue etc to come clean from wood) or AFTER lasering to take off residue and put on shine?

Thanks,
Linda

Nancy Laird
12-03-2007, 8:28 AM
Linda, your wood should have a finish on it BEFORE you start lasering - such as lacquer. You use the wax AFTER lasering to remove residue, seal the cut ends of the grain pores to stop color bleed if you are color-filling, then again after color-filling to remove paint residue and shine it up.

Five steps -
FINISH
LASER
WAX
COLOR FILL
FINAL WAX

Done....

Nancy (18 days)