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| Lasercut Acrylic
Case Tutorial |
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Lasercut Acrylic Case Tutorial - Graphics
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The general idea is to peel off the protective film from the
acrylic in the areas you want graphics and to print in one or
more stages using the remaining protective sheet as a mask.
So first thing is to peel off the sheet in the areas you want
to print with the first layer color.
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For this, its best to use inks with an extremely high pigment
loading so you get good opacity. I used some Nazdar brand
black and white screenprinting inks (which are also
conveniently very viscous so they are easy to print in a thick
layer). JD Albert was nice enough to do the initial work on
this process and also to mix me up some light and dark grey
vials of ink which looked nice next to e ink and incidentally
also look cool for an MP3 case.
For this particular ink, the best method seems to be to use a
Q-tip sort of like a mini-paint roller by saturating it with
ink and then rolling it over the surface by letting the stem
turn in your fingers.
It may also be worthwhile to use spray paint for this, which
is certainly easier to get than screenprinting ink. You may
need several coats though to get a good opacity.
In any case, wait until the ink/paint is cured until moving on
to subsequent printing layers. I usually throw my printed
pieces in a 60C oven for 15 minutes. On this case, I tried to
do a first layer of yellow paint pen followed up by
screenprinting ink, but the second layer kind of dissolved the
first and smeared it around. Maybe spray paint would have been
better here...
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After the first layer cures, peel off the mask in the areas
you want to print with the second layer color. Your first
layer areas are also uncovered at this point, but that is OK
since the second layer color will just be behind the first
layer and you won't be able to see it from the other side of
the plastic.
Print with the second color, and cure again. Repeat for more layers.
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Background color printing
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Remove all the masking now, except for areas you want to leave
clear or translucent. For instance on this case I left a
little clear window over the MMC card and two circular windows
for LEDs to shine through.
Print over the exposed new areas with your background color;
in this case dark grey.
Peel off any clear area mask, and the graphics are done!
On to assembly
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Design partially original and partially ripped off from other websites
by Holly Gates
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