So if I need to mask something for the laser, I’ve just been using painters tape. This works to a point, but leaves stained line in the form of gaps. I would be happy to hear some thoughts on either:
A) better masking techniques with this tape not requiring overlap
B) larger masking materials that cover the entire piece without any gaps or unevenness.
What material are you lasering? For wood I just do a light sanding over the surface with a high grit sandpaper. This removes most of the light yellowing that occurs outside my design, but leaves the raster untouched. I don’t even use tape, and get really good results. It helps a ton to find the optimal laser power too. Here is an example of a raster I did that turned out really nice:
that makes sense for designs that don’t have a lot of negative space, though with larger gaps, I worry I would dip into the etching some while sanding. I’m primarily laser etching wood.
Even if you dip into the etching some, the burn goes surprisingly deep into the wood and you probably won’t remove it. Try it on one of the pieces you’ve already etched. You just have to make sure you blow the dust off afterward.
I’ve been doing some images lately that have come off the laser darker and “stained” looking. One of them even had a diagonal line across the center that was caused by the laser moving back to the home position. Like you, I’ve been afraid to sand them, for fear of losing some detail. On the past 3 jobs, I’ve taken them to the sink and run cool water over them and hitting certain parts with a soft bristle toothbrush. I was shocked at the difference that it made on the 56 Chevy that I have posted in the April “show off”. It helped remove some of the darker / resin that was left from the job, and brought out a lot of detail.
I did the same with this Pennywise. It is not as nice as a couple of the others I’ve done, but it did help, and as you can see there is very little negative space. The little white specks are part of the paper towel that I used to pat it dry. I removed those after the pic.
