Sheets for engraving

[Jebediah Eckert]

I’m looking for a 1/16” sheet of stock to match some nameplates. It needs to be orange on both faces with a white core. I would be engraving it with a rotary tool. I figured the laser engraving world would use this type of material the most.

I’m looking for where I can buy something like that?

Thanks

[Kev Williams]

Nearly all 3-ply Romark material is in 1/8" thickness. They DO have a red/white/red satin in 1/16" but no other color combo's. They have orange/white/orange but only in 1/8", and only in certain types. They may be able to custom make some for you, but you're looking at a 2-full sheet (24x49) minimum...

Gravotech doesn't carry 1/16" 3-ply (best I can tell) but they'll custom make some for you, no clue on minimums...

IPI plastics, the only orange's at ALL that I can find is a 'pebble texture' 2-ply, and a 'traditional' rotary engrave material, with no 3-ply available in any thickness...

I'm thinking what you're trying to match was custom made...

[John Lifer]

I had a customer that I did orange white orange tags for. Engraved both sides. Ordered special through JDS but it was 1/8" I would expect they might do thinner, you would have to contact them It is Gemini plastics.

[Steve Morris]

Is it acrylic laminate, phenolic board (aka Lamacoid or Traffolyte) used to be available in 3 ply colours for rotary work.

[Jebediah Eckert]

I don’t know what material it is. I only know it’s 1/16” orange/white/orange.

I doubt it was custom made? It was for a small run of badges, maybe 750, 2”x2” or so.

However, whoever made them could have had the material custom made from a previous job and just used the remainder for this one.

Thanks for trying!

[Kev Williams]

So, are the originals engraved on both sides? If not, there's no reason to have the back side orange--

[Jebediah Eckert]

No. They are only engraved on one side. But I need them to be a decent match. They are free hanging.

[Kev Williams]

I can't find any off-the-shelf products that will work for you

I've been thru the entire catalogs of Rowmark and IPI plastics, and with the exception of Rowark's red/wht/red in 1/16", the only both-side-engravable plastics I can find is 1/8" thick -

Many times I've glued or taped 2 sheets of plastics together to make my own 2-sided stuff -red/white/green is pretty popular-but 1/8" thick is okay for my uses. You would need 1/32" thick material, but the thinnest ONE sided orange/white I can find is 1/16"...

[Tony Lenkic]

Rowmark does make this product but it is not stock item with distributors.
Part # is 223-612.

You may have to order it with local distributor as a special order.

[Jebediah Eckert]

Thanks for trying Kev.

Also thanks Tony, maybe I can figure it out with that info.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Rowmark and Gravograph likely offered this material where it was widely available 20+ years ago. It hasn't been widely available in no less than 10 years. Probably closer to 15. So either your customer has been getting it from a vendor that special orders the material for them OR they haven't ordered in roughly 15+ years.

One last thing to mention; if your customer is doing the measuring / telling you the specs, don't trust them. Ask for pictures or to bring in a sample. I can't tell you how many times people have given me wrong info resulting in me wasting a bunch of time. At this point in my career, I'm jaded and require proof before I start trying to source weird stuff. More often than not, they're giving me the wrong specs and it's a common, off the shelf item.

[Jebediah Eckert]

That’s possible Ross. These tags were just made, but who knows what the engraver had in stock that made them.

If nobody makes it anymore, it has to be old stock they had on hand. The order was around 800 small pieces. I doubt it was big enough to custom order a sheet. I’m going to try to find out who made them originally and maybe see if they have a piece left.

[Kev Williams]

Like Tony and I mentioned above, Rowmark could likely make this for you-- Through most of 2020 I was making breaker box labels for the new SLC Int'l airport, and those engineers wanted black/green text and black/orange text labels, which I had to have custom made, 2 sheet minimum, which is what, $150? And FWIW, the cap colors on Lazermax are just sprayed on.
--Found that out when the masking pulled some of the black off the orange in some places-
bad orange-black.jpg
not sure of the problem but at least it wasn't the whole sheet. IIRC Romark did make me another one--

Anyway, it would be no big deal for Rowmark to take a sheet of orange over white and spray the back side orange. And-- at 2x2", one sheet will only net you a max of 288 plates. Not sure how many you have to do-?

[Jebediah Eckert]

That’s not a bad idea Kev. Maybe I will find 1/16” white that can be cut with a router and just spray both side orange? I never thought of that. If spray can orange sticks to the sheet I’m good to go!

I only need to make 5 so custom ordering a sheet won’t work.