How to paint laser engraving on Acrylic?

I would like to fill in light text that was engraved on acrylic with white or black paint so it becomes visible. Has anyone done it? I’m thinking about using nail polisher and non-acetone polish remover, would it work? :slight_smile:

It has been my experience that crayon works well filling in light text.

-Derrill

If the nail polish is acetone (or general hydrocarbon solvent) based, it will likely blemish the surface of the acrylic.
Try water-based paints, perhaps?
Or, depending on depth of the cutout, regular latex (wall) paint and a squeegee. Haven’t tried it myself, but that’s what I’d try for bigger letters.

Also, you can spray the whole thing with a can of spray, let it dry, then use a chisel or very fine sand paper to scratch it off from the high points. (will scuff your beautiful finish though)
Or use Watery Paint to paint into the engraving (the lows) then use cloth to take of the excess/spilled/misplaced paint from the High points

Thanks all for the suggestions!
I found acrylic paint (water based) works the best, although a bit pain in the butt to apply.
I use q-tips to fill pain in the the engravings, let it dry for few minutes, then wipe with very slightly damp cloth. Trick is in timing for paint to dry and amount of moisture on the cloth. It’s a delicate balance. If cloth is too wet it will remove some paint from the engravings, then you have to repeat process 2-3 times. Each time more and more paint stays in the etching.
Also I use 2 cloth pieces. One for wiping out paint, and second one for cleaning up residue left over from wet cloth (it’s easy to cleanup).
I use this process in filling up text on my Xronos clocks

Of course best way would be to use silk screen printing, but kit is somewhat expensive…

And DO NOT use nail polisher! :slight_smile: It will not remove at all, I think it eats in the acrylic

Expensive clock.

Yes, and it’s very expensive to make, I didn’t make any money of it yet…

Well, it looks good!