Newbie Question - Masking

[Aaron Reimer]

Hey there. After quite an experience getting ripped off by a fraudulent seller in the States, I actually have a laser engraving machine coming my way from China (Yes, a Chinese laser, but it's purely a hobby machine that will likely run 5-6 hours a week, if that, so I figure I don't want to go high end ;)). I'll basically just be doing dog tags and paintball guns. I came across this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT5m0YdxhjM)on youtube of an iphone being etched and they used a masking material to check the alignment of the image before burning the anno. As I'm starting out (and likely after), I'm going to want to do that. The only problem is that I can't seem to find what this material is and where to get it. Are they just using some sort of sticky paper and turning the juice WAY down, or is it a specialty product? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Scott Shepherd]

No need for anything special. You can turn the power down and use thick paper, thick masking tape, or anything like that.

[Aaron Reimer]

Excellent :)! Thank you very much for your help. Any percentage suggestions on a 40w CO2 laser, or should I just start at 1% and work my way up experimenting?

[Scott Shepherd]

It really depends on what you mask it with, how fast your going, etc.

I would think 100% speed, 10% power would be a place to start. Once you get the setting for whatever you'll use, you won't have to figure it out again.

Masking tape or the likes will do fine.

[Aaron Reimer]

Once again, thank you Scott.

[mike klein]

Get some blue painters masking tape. I turn my power down to 10% and the engraving is a nice bright white on the tape, works perfect.

Mike

[Jim Good]

Blue painters tape is perfect. It is low tack and burns a nice white. I usually do 100% Speed with 11% power and you get a nice white burn onto the tape.

At my day job, I laser cell phone cameras since they can't be in the building. I use blue painters tape to align the camera lens. Each time I do one it seems the alignment can be off just a little. I have to test each one.

Go with the painters tape.

Jim

[Gary Hair]

Blue painters tape is perfect. It is low tack and burns a nice white. I usually do 100% Speed with 11% power and you get a nice white burn onto the tape.

At my day job, I laser cell phone cameras since they can't be in the building. I use blue painters tape to align the camera lens. Each time I do one it seems the alignment can be off just a little. I have to test each one.

Go with the painters tape.

Jim

What about making a fixture to help with that? I would make a wood base with posts in the corners. Attach a 1/8" sheet of clear acrylic to the posts. Vector a circle in the center of the sheet. When you need to etch the camera lens, just place the camera in the fixture so that the lens is aligned with the circle. It would be a lot of work for one camera, but if you do them often it would probably save you a lot of time in the long run.

That's also how I align wood pieces that I want to see the grain. I place a 1/8" piece of acrylic on the wood and laser into the acrylic. Move the wood (holding the acrylic in place) until you get it aligned as you want it and then laser away.

Gary

[Jim Good]

Gary,

What I've done is made acrylic templates out of 1/4" material. I size it so the phone fits nicely in the template. I have templates for several models of phones. Even though the phones fit snug in the template, the black dot does not always line up exactly with each phone. That's why I use the blue tape and tape over the lens. I engrave lightly and see how it "fits". I then adjust my black dot on the Corel file based on how far off I am. It usually take one or two adjustments and it's fine.

Your method may give me a much better shot at getting the alignment right the first time. I may give that a try! I like your idea because it seems the company keeps bringing me new phone models! I'm accumulating a lot of templates!

I'm up to about 55 phones but it seems like I am getting a larger volume lately. My hopes are they will take advantage of what I can do and I can develop more traditional work like awards and tags. We'll see!!

Thanks Gary for the suggestion. I'm going to give it a try.

Jim