Anyone with a lser foil example?

[Gregg Vaughn]

I have read many posts concerning laser foil. I have never used this material and I'm not sure what it is best suited for.

Can you raster it as well as cut it?
Do you raster/cut it in place?
Is it durable for signs and/or plaques?
does it look good or "cheap"?
A fair amount of the work I do is law enforcement plaques. Being able to render badges in laser foil would seemingly be a good thing. If anyone has a few pictures of their work with this material, I'd love to see them.

If anyone wants to post a quick "how to" for doing the average logo in laser foil, that would be great too.

PS

I just returned from a week on Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. There was a clock on the wall at the State Dock made from 1/8" birch plywood with the face lasered (a picture of the lake) and color filled. Whomever did this, it looked great!

[Brian Robison]

Gregg,
The foil cuts nice but doesn't raster. Spectrum Lites however can be used the same way but does raster.
The black with the gold underneath gives a REALLY classy gold look. The gold has a very cool texture to it
when lasered.

[Mike Null]

I always raster unless I'm doing only text.

Here are a couple of recent items. The FF plaque was a remake of something that somebody else did several years ago using a thin laminate. The foil is superior.

[Gregg Vaughn]

Mike,

Your work is great! Did you apply the laser foil to the plaques/name plates and laser and cut in place? Does the laser foil stay in place well, ie. is it durable?

[Mike Null]

Gregg

I tried responding earlier but cable went out.

I make sure the material is smooth then apply the foil using a squeegee for additional pressure. That is important. I then cut or raster the image using a different color on my driver to vary the settings from the wood settings. You can char the foil if you use too much power.

I raster to avoid weeding as much as anything and if you notice some of the detail is pretty small so if you start weeding the chains etc. you could have a problem.

I usually color fill with black liquid shoe polish (Maltese cross) the clean with diluted citrus cleaner and maybe dna--all very carefully.

Foil is durable for things like plaques and frames and plates which won't get a lot of handling. It is not satisfactory for anything but decorative purposes.

[Gregg Vaughn]

Mike,

So, on your fire shield, everything that is black is rastered, then color filled?

[Mike Null]

Greg

Yes, also the shadow of the letters is rastered and color fillied while the foil portion is vectored. The interior of the Coast Guard shields was rastered but not filled.

[Gregg Vaughn]

Mike,

Thanks, really nice work! Thanks for the pointers, I think I'll give it a whorl and see what happens.