Engraving

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mrplace

mrplace

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What do they use when you get a pen engraved to do the color fill? What kind of prep is done, and how is it applied?

I have seen an option to do your own color fill and I was curious as to what this really entailed.

Thanks,
 
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I use the Liquitex acrylic color paints - cheap and lots of colors to choose from. You can get them (or other similar paints) at any craft store (JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, Michaels...)

Chris
 
I use both a sharpe and Golden Paints Acrylics. The golden paints are not cheap, but they are water base when dry nothing will remove the paint. After I color fill I put the blanks back on the lathe and re MM from 8,000 - 12,000. This will remove all exess paint on the blank but not from the engraving. The gold and silver have solids to them to give the best luster I have found.
 
Originally posted by mrplace
<br />What do they use when you get a pen engraved to do the color fill? What kind of prep is done, and how is it applied?

I have seen an option to do your own color fill and I was curious as to what this really entailed.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
Laserbits (laserbits.com) makes product specifically for this, in a variety of colors. I end up primarily using their Gold, Bronze, Black, and White. They have a sampler pack that I believe comes with 8 colors that is a pretty good deal.
For many of the pens I receive requests for, I'll colorfill before putting the finish and hardware on. By roughturning to 95% of finished size and sanding through 400, I'm pretty close to the finish diameter. I'll take it to my engraver, and have him take two passes with the laser- ends up being a deeper cavity left that way. I end up layering in about three layers of colorfill- it shrinks slightly as it dries. Generally by the third coat, I've ended up with a solid field that stands a little proud of the barrell. I'll mount it back on the lathe, take a light scraping cut with a skew to remove most of the excess, than start the final sanding process at 120 and work through 12000MM. A quick wipe with DNA removes any dust cover on the colorfill, and leaves it looking pristine. Several coats of lacquer, and you have a finished product that looks many times better than having a completed pen engraved and then colorfilled. It also eliminates the possibility of having dirt and grime build up in the engraved portion, or the colorfill degrading and falling out with seasonal dimensional changes from heat and humidty swings. Quite a bit more work, but I absolutely believe the quality of the look and feel done this way makes it worth it many times over. My 2 cents worth (OK, that was probably more like a nickel...), at any rate.
 
My 12-year-old daughter subcontracts the work from me. She wipes a dab of paint into the engraved area, using a small piece of paper towel, and uses another piece of paper towel to wipe off the excess paint. I offered to pay her $.50 per pen, but she bargained it up to $.75 each. She did 20 pens, with 2 different engraved areas, in about 45 minutes.

She is sitting here watching me type and offered to do that work for any interested penturners at that same rate. To clarify her rate - 1 engraved area per pen - $.50, 2 areas - $.75 per pen. (I should have offered her $10.00 per hour [;)] (but now she says she would have worked much more slowly in that case) she is quite the entreprenuer.)

Chris
 
Thanks for the input. What if a pen is complete already, wiping as Chris explained does not leave any residue or remove the fill from the etching?

I like the idea of getting it done before the pen is assembled. Atleast that way if there is an error in engraving or filling you dont have to knock the pen apart.
 
Originally posted by thewishman
<br />My 12-year-old daughter subcontracts the work from me. She wipes a dab of paint into the engraved area, using a small piece of paper towel, and uses another piece of paper towel to wipe off the excess paint. I offered to pay her $.50 per pen, but she bargained it up to $.75 each. She did 20 pens, with 2 different engraved areas, in about 45 minutes.

She is sitting here watching me type and offered to do that work for any interested penturners at that same rate. To clarify her rate - 1 engraved area per pen - $.50, 2 areas - $.75 per pen. (I should have offered her $10.00 per hour [;)] (but now she says she would have worked much more slowly in that case) she is quite the entreprenuer.)

Chris
Click to expand...

Smart daughter you've got there![:D][:D]
 
I've used both Sharpies and acrylic paints, as well as leaving it natural. It just depends on the look I'm trying to achieve. I always apply this to the finished pen barrels. Some have been assembled, some not. But the excess has always wiped off cleanly w/o damaging the finish, even when I've had to used a dab of DNA to remove any residue.
 
Originally posted by mrplace
<br />Thanks for the input. What if a pen is complete already, wiping as Chris explained does not leave any residue or remove the fill from the etching?

I like the idea of getting it done before the pen is assembled. Atleast that way if there is an error in engraving or filling you dont have to knock the pen apart.
Click to expand...

When you are wiping off the excess, you do want to use a light touch. I like to use a bit of DNA on the cloth to make clean up easier.

Having said that, I prefer to use the method suggested of filling the slightly proud, unassembled pen and then finishing.

In either case, I think it a good idea to seal the engraving before filling so the wood color doesn't leach into the fill.

-Barry
 
I've also used fabric paint. I picked up a multi pak at WallyMart, (before my boycott). It has a really fine little applicator end that lets you get pretty accurate. They were designed to let you write or draw on fabric right from the little bottle. On a deep fill I have to use two applications because of shrinkage, but wet sands great. I have used micromesh to sand it with great results and good polish.
 
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