Helpful Tip for cleaning off residue after cutting!

[Dee Gallo]

I saw this from the Rowmark people and tried it on cherry which was prepped with a poly finish. Worked like magic! I just smeared some dish soap on with my fingers and rastered, cut, flipped (2 sided job), rastered again and washed it all off with water in two seconds. Got rid of a lot of the smell too! It works on acrylic too. This will save me a lot of time and effort!

Vector Cutting Without Masking




By: Bobbi Payne
Tuesday, March 25, 2014


To facilitate post-fabrication cleanup when vector cutting plastic sheet where masking is not an option, remove protective masking and apply a thin film of mild dish soap (nothing citrus-based) on the surface of the plastic, then let dry. Note: it dries quickly. Place into the machine and engrave and cut in the same file. Remove cut parts and rinse off the soap with tepid water. Any residue and debris from the cut will stick to the soap and wash right off.
—Bobbi Payne, Rowmark Technical Help Specialist

[David Somers]

Dee,


Not quite related to your post, but close....


When I was a counselor in a kids camp ages ago we were on a camping trip. I had told the kids about how applying a layer of bar soap to the outside of a pot being used to cook over an open fire would make it easier to clean after. The kids, sharp little critters that they are, made a leap of logic that helped with their total cleaning job after the meal. They soaped the inside of the pot as well! The pots were remarkably easy to clean after the meal, as were our bowels that evening.


Soap has sooooo many uses.


Will stick this note in my file for the day when I finally have a laser to play with! Thanks!!!


Dave

[Chris DeGerolamo]

On a similar note, we've had good results spraying baltic birch plywood with Pledge before cutting to reduce smoke damage and char.

[Bert Kemp]

On a similar note, we've had good results spraying baltic birch plywood with Pledge before cutting to reduce smoke damage and char.

? did you spray unfinished birch?
and if so did you finish or stain the birch afterwards? Did the pledge make it more difficult to stain or shellac?

[Chuck Stone]

Nice tip, Dee!
I'll keep that one in the arsenal..

about the Pledge ... DON'T!!! Not unless it is your final 'finish'.
You can NEVER get a decent finish after using Pledge.. at least not without
a whole lot of work. It contains silicone.. and nothing sticks to silicone.
Not shellac, not polyurethane, wax or stain .. so if there's Pledge on the wood,
that's what you're stuck with forever. Whatever you try to put on top of it will
come off again. Maybe not today or this week, but the finish will lift off.

Woodworkers call it "the Pledge Syndrome" when they try to refinish furniture and
the only way to do it is to strip down to bare wood.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

? did you spray unfinished birch?
and if so did you finish or stain the birch afterwards? Did the pledge make it more difficult to stain or shellac?

Yes, unfinished. And no, we have had no issues with the pledge interfering with stain at the end of vectoring.

[Dee Gallo]

Dave - I'll bet they never forgot THAT meal!

Soap has sooooo many uses.

Dave

[Bert Kemp]

OK I'm confusedconfused.gifChris says its no problem, and Chuck says it can't be done, so which is it?

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I have hundreds of stained ornaments that were "pledged" and the stain has not lifted. I am not saying you are wrong, but what I can say from my experience is that it works for us.

[Chuck Stone]

if it is working for you that's great... it's just contrary to what happens when I refinish furniture, and
what I hear from other refinishers. Stains are the easiest, really.. at worst it makes things blotchy.
But a water based stain might have more problems than oils.
The worst part is topcoats. They will de-laminate, if they even take at all. Fish-eye is just about
guaranteed, even with finishes that don't normally do that. Pledge is meant to use over a sealed
wood surface. (so it doesn't actually come into contact with the wood itself)

[Chris DeGerolamo]

if it is working for you that's great... it's just contrary to what happens when I refinish furniture, and
what I hear from other refinishers. Stains are the easiest, really.. at worst it makes things blotchy.
But a water based stain might have more problems than oils.
The worst part is topcoats. They will de-laminate, if they even take at all. Fish-eye is just about
guaranteed, even with finishes that don't normally do that. Pledge is meant to use over a sealed
wood surface. (so it doesn't actually come into contact with the wood itself)

Thanks for the follow up info. It's nice to see it from another side and I'll keep this in mind for the future.