Acryl Masking before colour fill

[Ivan Shuliak]

Hi, I know there're a number of thread but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for.
Just recently started to work with acrylic and trying to do some colour infill but it doesn't look nice.

I tried to apply medium tack masking paper but no matter what power I apply there lots of glue left after engraving.
Is there any solution that I can put on acrylic, engrave it (loots of tiny details) so that completely vaporise?
Then I'll apply the acrylic paint and remove masking when ready?

Will low tack paper work? What do you use?

[Bert Kemp]

on acrylic I don't use anything for a mask. I just engrave, wipe off the dust and fill with acrylic paint let it dry a few min's and wipe off the excess with a wet rag.

[Hannu Rinne]

Hi Ivan,

I use 3M SCPS 100 transfer tape all the time. Works great even with a very small details.

-Hannu

[Ivan Shuliak]

Hi Hannu,

Thank you for the suggestion. We'll try to find it in the UK and give it a go

[Keith Downing]

Hi Ivan,

I use 3M SCPS 100 transfer tape all the time. Works great even with a very small details.

-Hannu

Is this different than the 3M™ SCPS-2 Heavy Paper Application Tape? I'm assuming it is, but it's the only one I can find that's actually for sale online in the states. The real irony here is I live just down the street from a huge 3M corporate campus here in Austin. LOL

[Hannu Rinne]

Keith,

I think the only difference between these two materials is the glue. SCPS-2 contains a tighter glue which means you must use a more power because the glue stays tighter on the top of the material (the laser will "push" the glue inside the material so you need to use a more power to get it off).

-Hannu

[Gene Uselman]

There are many brands of transfer tape- R-tape and Transferite are others.

[David Somers]

You might find a low tack tape to be easiest to remove while still doing what you want. Local sign shops should carry it. Get a small amount to play with. If it does what you want you can get it in most any width and length you want.

[Ivan Shuliak]

There are many brands of transfer tape- R-tape and Transferite are others.

I tried R-tape (medium tack) and whatever power I use the glue is still melting with the acrylic making it sticky and messy (

[Abe Levinson]

Hi Ivan,

In my experience your problem isn't the tape so much as the raster engraving. No matter what kind of tape you use you will always have heat transfer to the edge of the tape where the laser stopped resulting in muddy fuzzy edges. I highly recommend using only vector based graphics. Set you your laser to low power and a low speed for greatest detail(especially on small detailed graphics)I do coloring on acrylic all the time and I always use Frog Tape. After the image is cut out, I use a weeding tool to quickly and easily remove anywhere I want to paint and then I use Krylon Fusion spray paint which is designed for even, strong bonding to plastics. The great thing about Frog Tape is that it has special binders in it to take up all the water in paint so that even if you accidentally end up with a pretty thick coat you end up with no bleed through and razor sharp edges. If your project allows you the freedom to cut out the over all shape of your piece first its even better because then you can set the position to home, so after the paint has dried you can peel it all off, retape it, lay the piece exactly the same way back in the laser and cut out a different part of the graphic for painting with a different color and keep your registry. It is more time consuming doing it this way, but the results will speak for themselves.