Acrylic ingraving tips needed :)

[Greedseed]

hej guys :) my side panel whit the hole in it spray painted in black today xD
i was so happy it was dry than i saw i used the wrong paint -_-
i have used glossy and i needed MATT

so but to the point
i wont to engrave the letters "Serenity" into the acrylic
its 2.5MM think
just some i picked up at the local craftsman shop
the letters are gone be about 5 CM hinge
dont have the correct design YET

but now my question

i have bin testing some whit my dremel on a peace of the old window of my antec 1200 but that dind look so nice as i exspected
So do u have a tip or some tips how i can make the ingravement look better ?
i DONT wont to go to laser it

i wont to do EVERYTHING self
from now that workt out prity good so i am gone try to keep dooing it all myself :D

thanks

[p0Pe]

put a little mill head on the dremel, and either use a round bit, and make small dots, or use a normal one, and make rills, chanels, lines or wtf to call it:)

[Greedseed]

i have a smal a medium and a large round engraving head

i DO not have a stand off for my dremel so i wont be able to get strait lines

but cant u explain the dot method a bit :P

dont wone fuck up this part of acrylic xD

i have some test parts but only 1 chance to get it correct on the good acrylic :D

[Greedseed]

is there no one whit some engraving experience ?:S
cant fined anything really useful on youtube or so

[Floyd]

I did some freehand engraving before on a case about 6 years ago. I used a VERY small round engraving tip for the dremel and took my time.
Here is a pic of 2 logos I did:
http://i526.photobucket.com/albums/cc341/floydam/case3.jpg

[Greedseed]

nicely done
what method did u use ?

dam maybe olso gone put thoos sings on mine but smaler :D thay look dam good ^^

did u point ?
just moved the bid like a pen and collor ?
did u first draw outlines ?
dis u use a sdand for the dremel ?
dud u put the sing on paper on the back ?
dud u put the paper on the front ? and dremel throo it ?

danks a lot

[Cutless009]

simplicity is key here.

Tape off your design in negative (so what you want etched is exposed). I recommend printing your design on card-stock and cutting out the design with a razor blade.

tape your design in place where it should go.

After that, put a piece of 800 grit sandpaper on a sanding block. Sand in circles so you don't create lines, and apply even pressure.

The end result will be an even "etching" of the acrylic where the sand put millions of microscratches on it. The look mimics acid etched glass. I recommend using this technique on the back of the acrylic to give the effect depth and hide any imperfections that may exist.

[Floyd]

did u point ?
just moved the bid like a pen and collor ?
did u first draw outlines ?
dis u use a sdand for the dremel ?
dud u put the sing on paper on the back ?
dud u put the paper on the front ? and dremel throo it ?

Im going to try and answer what I can understand from this...

did u point ? Not sure what this means
just moved the bid like a pen and collor ? Still not sure what your talking about
did u first draw outlines ? Yes outline then fill using LIGHT pressure.
dis u use a sdand for the dremel ? Not sure what sdand is lol
dud u put the sing on paper on the back ? Yes I printed the logo in REVERSE and etched on the backside so it would come out right side up.
dud u put the paper on the front ? and dremel throo ? No I put the paper on the front with the image reversed and then dremeled on the backside.

[Greedseed]

oke il explain xD

did u point ? : refering to what pope sed on post 2
did u move the bid like a pen and collor : did u move the dremel around randomly like u where coloring in a drawing
dis u use a sdand for the dremel ? : sdand had to be STAND

thanks :)

[Floyd]

Ok much better!

No I didnt use the point method.
Yes I was more or less moving like I would shade in a drawing, Remember that VERY light pressure is needed for this. Let the engraving tip do the job.
No I did not use a stand, it was all done freehand using the stencil as a reference. Each piece on there took about 3-4 hours to get to that point.
Most of the time was spent taking breaks and making sure that I was not shaking.

[Greedseed]

have to admit it looks great :)

gone try it this weekend :) now my matt paint is drying ^^

[Floyd]

I think it was dremel bit PN:105 that I used.

I used that one for the small work and the next size up for the shading.
105 has a 1/32" tip btw ;)

[Greedseed]

oke thanks a lot man :)

[THP Dan]

Depending on what outcome you want depends on what method you want to use:
Use dots when you want to add different depths into the image.
Use the Colouring method when you want a block of one shade.

i dont have any pictures of engravings i have done but ive done a few ;)

[Greedseed]

dot some tips ? :D

[Floyd]

dot some tips ? :D

Take your time. Its the best advice I can give you with freehand engraving.

[Greedseed]

i will :) olready made some malls

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3013/31460019.jpg

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9002/a60382adad87508723ef2a4.jpg

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/2750/44862agamerlogoergblore.jpg

now i need one for the Serenity part :) gone be a hard one qus its so big

[THP Dan]

will you be edge lighting it?

[Greedseed]

yes there is a RED cathode on the big letters (Serenity) on the right hand side of the case over the drive bays
there is a 30CM cathode sining from the right to the left and its just out of side by a little overspan of the sidepanel

maybe i got a pick a sec

dam i realy need a bluetooth on my desktop -_-

[THP Dan]

Ok,
If you was back lighting it, engraving the edges then sanding the middle looks good. I havnt tried edge lighting with this but t gives a good solid colour when lit.

[Greedseed]

how do u sand it ? i got this very fine sanding on my dremel whit the little botle of red sand

finely got the pics online :P

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7062/p28100919470001e.jpg

[THP Dan]

how do u sand it ?

Just using sandpaper, the finer it is the better.
Ive got this very fine sanding pad cloth thing that works very well (have no idea what its called)

[Cutless009]

Yep. Dont forget though if you get up into 1K+ grits, you're working back toward a polish. The sweet spot seems to be right around 800 or 1000 tops.

[Greedseed]

hmm here it are other digits in grids :-) 400 grid here is same like your 1000 grid i think XD

i got 400 and the very fine polish sand from the Dremel and a polishing top to put the send on of course :)

[Greedseed]

dam i tryd to cut out the letters out of paper
and its a pain in the ass !

the amd game stil went it did fix that but the ATI and republic of gamers sing is just too dam fine

[Floyd]

You have to get the VERY fine Dremel tips for the real detailed stuff.

[Greedseed]

dam i done it xD wohooo it did it :P and it doosnt look bad for the very very first time :D

pics at my buildlog :D


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