Courtesy of Rich Kremsdorf we have this checklist for etching.
He developed it while etching his commemorative plaque.
Does anybody have a similar one for laser cutting?
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Classic! It’s good and timeless advice.
Rich, what kind (how heavy) of a contact paper do you use? Have you tried blue tape, and if so haw does it compare? Do you adjust your power or speed when using contact paper / tape?
Thank you?
Here is the version with the tape in place. the handwritten in values are speed, power with line/fill settings using the 20 watt Ortur laser. The wood in baltic birch ply. With blue tape, the letters are charred, looks like there was some mild flame though I didn’t see any. The “l” in Arial 20 had non-adherent tape. THe blue tape is traditional Scotch blue masking tape. The white tape is the StewMac roll is referenced in another posting, used by the luthiers. Next osting will have the tape removed.
I outlined where the tape had been. Also note that with tape you need to use tweezers to dig out the remainder in the capital A and lower case a. With the blue tape, the fill is really burned, showing ash on the inside of the letters. With the white tape, there is whole layer of wood that is vaporized, but it doesn’t leave that dark writing behind. There is also no smoke left, which you can see on the lettering with white tape was not used.