MSRaynsford

I made this gauge with white acrylic and a black paint infill to bring out the numbers, although I engraved through the protective layer and used it as a mask I think it's probably easier to just engrave the material without the mask because the paint wipes off the plastic pretty easily, now that I'm using airbrush paints.

I read on the internet about a few different techniques to infill acrylic with a different colour. I've done some previous painting where I engraved the protective cover off the acrylic. I found that engraving that protective sheet can be a bit hit and miss, sometimes it engraves fine but other times it just appears to melt so I prefer to peel it off now. I tried to apply some vinyl transfer tape which engraves better, this was effective but it seems silly peeling off one sheet and applying another. I settled on a compromise between the two. Since all the numbers and words around the outside are cut using Hershey text , instead of engraving they cut cleanly even through the protective sheet. The engrave in the middle of the item is done by first outlining the engrave with enough power to cut the sheet and then peeling the sheet off from the place that's going to be engraved. The idea is to do it in a single piece so they will be no weeding, the engrave can then be done ...

These white on black counters were much simpler than the others. The actual numbers on the dial still had to be done with a paint infill but the actual symbol and lettering was engrave so they show up white enough to not need painting.

I recreated these tablets with a different image by request. I've also been working on some acrylic with paint infill experiments recently so expect me to post about those shortly.

I cut some more wound point counters tonight, but this time I used air brush paints to fill the lettering. It's thinner than normal acrylic paint, offers great coverage and dries quicker. I definitely recommend it for infill effects.

A lot of work has been done to use a wax infill on engraved items to provide a high colour contrast. For this cat image I achieved the same effect using acrylic paint instead. The process is relatively simple, the acrylic was engraved and cut with the protective layer still on the sheet. The engraving was done through the cover which left some texture in the dent. The whole thing was painted black afterwards and when the paint had dried I peeled off the protective layer, essentially making my own stencil for the item I had just cut. It's a rather effective technique I'm sure you'll agree. ( svg here )

I made a prototype dial for another project and it all came together well. It's mostly Birch ply, stained dark brown. The pointer is 1.5mm ply painted black and attached to a cut down servo arm. The backing is 3mm white acrylic, infill painted with black acrylic paint. The whole thing has another layer of 3mm clear acrylic over the front to act as a protective layer. It's a standard 9g servo behind it and connected to an arduino to make it easy to drive.