Situation I hope you can help with....

[MatthewZS]

So I took my first spin at getting a pen laser engraved as a gift. It's just a set of 3 initials, pretty simple. My intention is to color fill, and since I'd never done this before I had the engraver make a handful of extra "test pieces" for me to at least try and get the hang before doing "THE" pen. I can't for the life of me find the test pieces now, I've no time to get more made and I'm leary of just jumping right in. Anyone able to point me at the most certain, easiest method so I've the least chance of messing up? Or should I just seal the engraving like it is, no colorfill and live to fight another day?

Thanks

 

[jedgerton]

My method is real simple and inexpensive. I use acrylic craft paint from somewhere like Michaels and just apply it with a Qtip. As soon as I get it spread evenly over the engraved area, I then wipe off the excess paint with a cotton rag. Allow it to dry for a few hours and repeat if the colorfill isn't as uniform as desired.

John

 

[thewishman]

Wood or acrylic? If wood, is there a finish?

 

[MatthewZS]

....

Sorry, wood, fairly closed grain with CA finish.

 

[DCBluesman]

John gave you the right answer. I've been doing this for years.

 

[rjwolfe3]

Haven't tried it myself but I would use method that John said.

 

[MatthewZS]

Thank you

I will give that a try then. My main concern was making SURE I had the right stuff to fill with that wasn't going to dry immediately or stick all over outside the engraving and require a bunch of sanding and stuff. Thank you all for the input

 

[thewishman]

I use the acrylic paint, too. Got tubes of the heavy body acrylic paint for the most used colors (red, white and black).

 

[DurocShark]

Most of the engravers offer the color fill as a service as well. But yeah, the paint method works great. Reminds me of when I used to play Dungeons & Dragons. The dice had to have the numbers filled so they could be read. My friends all used crayons. I used paint. They were *so* jealous of how much better my dice looked.