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Scott Shepherd
08-31-2008, 1:15 PM
Was given this to reproduce for multiple floors on a renovation project. It is polished stainless steel, silk screened. I couldn't figure out how to reproduce them for a reasonable price with the color involved and then the use of mirrored acrylic hit me, backfilling the colors. Now people can't scratch the color off and if they scratch the acrylic, we can polish it out. Sorry for the poor quality photos. Oh, they asked to have the logo removed, so it's not missing by accident ;)

Original sample :

http://www.customengravingandsigns.com/photos/evac014.jpg

Here's the new one :

http://www.customengravingandsigns.com/photos/evac016.jpg

And a a little closer for the detailed area. It's sharper and clearer in person, with the resizing of the photo, it went a little pixely on me.

http://www.customengravingandsigns.com/photos/evac015.jpg

Bob Cole
08-31-2008, 3:05 PM
That looks very good.

What did you use to colorfill and mask? What usually gets me on the multi-color projects is the process.

Scott Shepherd
08-31-2008, 5:36 PM
Thanks Bob, no masking at all. I did it in stages. I rastered all the black, took it out the laser, sprayed the entire back black. Let that dry, put it back in, engraved the red, took a brush and sloppily (is that a word?) applied the red, then back in, engraved the orange, and then applied the orange paint.

Sounds complicated, but it's really simple and keeps from having to do any masking.

Mike Null
08-31-2008, 6:41 PM
Very nice solution and for sure saved the customer some money.

Bob Cole
09-01-2008, 2:42 AM
I always worried about taking items out of the laser then running the next phase of the job and not having it match up just right.

That last time I tried to remove some paint, there was still paint residue. I bumped up the power and without realizing it, went through half the material. Still had paint residue in the rastered areas. Not sure my exact problem. Could have been the paint I was using, not letting it dry long enough, not quite sure. All the the items I do now is masked. Would be a lot easier to do it your way. Just need to get my process down.