# filling a laser engraving



## aggromere (Mar 14, 2011)

I recently had GaptG (Gary) laser engrave two pen barrels and a gavel head (the hammer end) and want to fill them with something that is gold colored and part of it blue.

What is the best way to do it?  I was thinking I could just paint the engraved part and any mistakes I made by getting paint on the barrel that i could sand off and then cover the whole thing with CA.

I was also thinking about using inlace, but would have the same issue.  Is there some sort of colored very fine powder that could be poured into the recessed parts and then saturated with thin CA (much like I do crushed stone inlays).

I don't want to mess them up and have never done this before so I wanted to get it right the first time if possible.

thanks.


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## NewLondon88 (Mar 14, 2011)

You can request that they do the engraving through transfer tape and
ship it back to you with the tape still attached.
Transfer tape is a low or medium tack masking tape that vinyl sign
companies use to transfer the lettering to your window. Laser engravers
sometimes use this to mask materials while they do the color fill. Normally
they wouldn't ship it back to you with tape on it, since they also earn a
fee for doing color fill. But in this case, you are talking about filling with
a custom material that they don't use, so I can't see it being a problem.

So you get back your items with the mask still on it, and the laser has
engraved through the tape and into your material. You do your color fill,
wipe off the excess, remove the tape and allow the fill to cure. That should
protect the item from getting color fill on it.
-------------------------------------
Sorry.. I just saw that you already had the items engraved. You could
try adding your color fill and scraping off the excess with a credit card
or something similar.. if any color gets on the wood, you could remove
it with a damp cloth before it dries hard.

OR, like you suggest.. fill and sand. Just be careful not to sand too far..


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## mjsayen (Mar 14, 2011)

I have had good results with powdered paint used in powder coating and CA. Put a few drops of CA on a clean surface mix in powder and fill. You will need to sand or clean up excess and refinish. If I know I will be using fill I have the laser work done first, then fill, and finish.  

Mike


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