How To Paint Engraved Acrylic

In this video, I'm tackling a massive wedding sign project using my Aeon Nova 14 laser engraver. I'll be sharing with you the tips and tricks I learned from my community, including a new method for painting filled acrylic. Follow along as I demonstrate my process, from engraving to painting, sealing, and assembling the sign.
If you're looking for a creative and practical tutorial on painting engraved acrylic, this video is for you! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more laser engraving tips and projects.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:08 Setting up the engraving
04:23 Using the pass-through feature
09:04 Engraving the acrylic names
12:50 Sealing the engraving with lacquer
14:00 Painting the engraved acrylic
17:50 Tips for painting and cleanup
22:56 Maria Kennedy's chalk paint pen method
26:32 Conclusion and final thoughts
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Please be advised that my videos feature me using and operating a laser engraving machine, tools, power tools, equipment, and other instrumentalities that, if not used properly, could be dangerous or a safety hazard (collectively, the “Equipment”). By viewing my videos, you assume all responsibility and risk for the use of the tips, advice, or information I share on my channel regarding the use of Equipment. Reliance on such advice, information, or the content available on my KZbin channel is solely at your own risk, including without limitation any safety guidelines, resources, or precautions related to the installation, use, operation, maintenance, or repair of any Equipment or any other information related to safety precautions to take when using said Equipment. I and my company, That Mom With A Laser, Inc., disclaim any liability for injury, death, or damages resulting from the use thereof.

[@TheLouisianaHobbyGuy]

*Loved watching the entire process Emily!* _Quick tip, hold Shift and select a layer on the Cuts / Layers tab and it will select everything on that layer._

[@pam2436]

Constantly in awe of what you do! Awesome job!

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

🥹🙏🏼❤️

[@troythatcoolkid]

Can’t believe the turnaround time you did on this!! Super woman!!

[@curtjones3267]

Love the cute Doodle

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Haha thank you! Woody keeps me company every day. ❤️

[@LaserEngraving911]

I like the plastic razor blade hack, need to get me sum of those. 🎉 Cool project

[@pme636]

I rarely comment on YT, but this was awesome! Loved how you were so real with being unsure of how to accomplish this, and how you resolved the problems you had. Would love to see more of these! What a great job you did with this very large piece!

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Aww thank you so much for taking the time to comment. It really means a lot. I’m so glad you enjoyed the video! ❤️

[@havocproltd]

I want to thank you again for turning me onto the FiltraBox line!! and this is really cool! hadn't thought about painting my acrylic stuff!!

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Aww you are so welcome. I’m happy to hear that it’s been a good addition to your shop!

[@MileyonDisney]

You did a beautiful job on this.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you so much! I'm very proud of it, that's for sure!

[@whichcraftLiz]

excellent tutorial!! the sign is beautiful

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you!

[@3DHP]

Great video, I enjoyed watching.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Yay! Thank you!

[@stevegrimes5105]

Thanks "Mom with", that was a great segment

[@leecloward9279]

Emily great job.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you. 🙏🏼

[@SpikeyBoy25]

Great result in the end! There are tons of ways of doing this, I always start with a coat of plastic primer, although your clear coat did the trick. You can get acrylic supplied with a paper backer, which is way better to work with than masking tape. POSCA paint markers have an excellent range of colours. BTW I am a little bit jealous of your selection of lasers, I have a large 100w Chinese CO2, but those Aeons are lovely! A fibre is definitely in my future! Great work!

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you so much. I'm not familiar with plastic primer but will look into it for the future. This acrylic came with that masking tape on it already so I just worked with it the way it came. As for the fiber, that's going to be fun! :)

[@BPerry-vz8dw]

Great job. You can still use Print & Cut if you're creative. For instance, add masking tape to a blank area and write on it with a fine-tip marker, then cue off it for both top and bottom sections. Or you can Print & Cut off of an existing feature, like the intersection on an X or the center of the dot on an i.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you! Good point. That would have worked too!.

[@adamcolville2057]

Great vid and a lot of work 😂when filling I use an airbrush with createx wicked paints , super quick to apply and dry very quickly and you can do multiple coats for depth and real easy to clean up xx

[@martivaughan6382]

What a beautiful job you did. I’d be a nervous wreck. Btw: I hate weeding (anything,lol) so the chalk pen is definitely something I’m trying!

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

haah me too. Let me know how it goes!

[@Spooky737]

I had a large project where I had to do the exact same thing. The only thing I did different was measure the boxes instead of marking by hand. Super stressful job! Also, I have found using a smaller squirt bottle with watered down paint works great instead of the brush on method.

[@milt8697]

Very helpful , I did some acrylic keychains 6 months ago for my brothers band and paint filled the logos white paint on black acrylic and it was a nightmare wish i had seen this video first LOL

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Gah! Well, at least now you have this for next time.

[@chazryan143]

Thank you for sharing. This was awesome. How do you get your mirrored acrylic to come out so good. I get flashbacks and when I mask, it has lots of adhesive left on it.

[@MotoRich900]

I've been running industrial lasers for the past 30 + years... everyone has these "toy" lasers now, which is awesome

[@smattt]

Congrats

[@elylioney6390]

The table top size laser?

[@Alluvian567]

This could definitely be done with print and cut. In order to use print and cut you don't have to engrave any registration points at all into the product. You could put targets on a non printing layer in Lightburn on any identifiable locations of the actual engraving. Examples would be the lower left of the W and the lower right of the T in "We saved you a seat". Then when you do the second part you just line up your red dot with the lower left of the W, and align that with the non printing reg mark, same for the T, then do the second part. For the third part you would pick parts of letters near the bottom of the text of part 2 that come to points and are easy to precisely pinpoint with the laser.

[@stephaniespivey8951]

Thanks so much for sharing. What is the masking tape you used on the acrylic? Do you have a link?

[@MARCAM]

Love the video. Did something very similar recently but painted with spray paint. How are you findig the Aeon Laser? I recently got the Mira5 S and must say it's a fantastic machine so far.

[@poppopswoodshop]

Just FYI regarding chalk pens, never used them before but I saw it on your video thought maybe I could make it work on sealed wood for a backfill into letters, yeah that doesn't work made a big mess… So a laser engraved one of those inexpensive the platters from Hobby Lobby as an experiment sealed it with five coats of lacquer and then I attempted to backfill the letters with acrylic paint that didn't work out so great and then I came across to your video and thought the chalk pen idea might work so I tried it and that idea didn't work… so I'm back to seal the wood first, put a mask on it, engrave it, seal it again, paint it and finally remove the mask.. So right now I'm working on another one (same Type) and I'm going to try it like it's a tile painting multiple color layers and try to burn it off one layer at a time in my laser.

[@HeartlandFamilyDesigns]

I use chalk paint, BUT you are going to have to seal it some how if it ever gets near water. This is fine for just decoration that hangs up. It can wipe off. I use chalk paint and a squeegie.

[@Nomnomkookie08]

Do you use anything to seal the paint once it’s done drying? I’d like to make keychains but I worry the keys might scratch the paint off.

[@dustybeardwoodcrafts]

I elevate my mirrored acrylic like you do, but never cut it upside down like that. Do you find you get better results like that? Thanks for all the great content, Emily!

[@3dmania11]

so after using the chalk pen to infill do you have to seal the chalk pen? if so with what?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

I don’t believe so. She doesn’t seal it just like we don’t seal the acrylic paint fill.

[@msabarez]

This is absolutely great tutorial! Thank you for sharing. Is the chalk marker from Dollar store dries quickly and permanent?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you! I don't believe it's permanent. It will probably wash off with enough water but so will acrylic paint. I didn't time how long it dries because I wiped it off immediately but it doesn't seem like it will take too long.

[@JayEspreee]

Can you engrave / score over an already painted wood backer? I can’t think of the best way to do this since there might be some charring. Sanding would mess up the paint finish and touch ups might get paint inside the engraved part. Could be overthinking this though 😓

[@edriveria64]

Question, after you paint in white the engraving do you apply something to the paint, so it'll not come off??

[@Alluvian567]

Good tips, that masking cleanup looked like a nightmare, not because of the process but just due to that protective coating NOT wanting to come off cleanly. I have seen some places that one side of the acrylic masking comes off much easier than the other side, is there a way to tell which side is which before engraving? (Other than obviously testing with a sample which you didn't have here)

[@Isotope_13]

Regarding the paper mask tearing, I find that paper labels & masks remove easier when they are warmed up. So I use a heat gun to warm up small sections at a time, then try to peel the mask. (Maybe do a test run on some scrap in case it leaves behind glue residue or warps the acrylic.)

[@Isotope_13]

Also, the clear spray lacquer may be weakening the paper mask. Like how getting masking tape wet makes it tear more easily, even after it dries.

[@wholesomeengraving]

From lightburn, I would move the laser head in an area that there is no content, then afix a thin piece of wood with sided tape there. Etch my markers on the wood.

[@blewprent]

I truly wonder how acrylic spray paint would work instead of the paint brush method.

[@ChristinaMcDermott-cn3bb]

Having a hard time getting the adhesive from the tape off. Any advice? I have been doing the tape and the razor but it’s leaving a lot behind.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

@@ChristinaMcDermott-cn3bb yes! Try heating it a little with a heat gun or blow dryer. Be careful not to make it too hot or you’ll be d the acrylic.

[@customwalldisplay]

Wow I never thought about sealing it first and the 3m tape wow I have a job coming up on my cnc these tips will help me so much Do the pens come in other colours?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

They do but I haven’t tried them. :)

[@ExclusivelyCreated4U]

Could you have added a layer of aluminum tape and then painters tape then used that for print and cut scoring targets? Like score into the painters tape and the aluminum tape would prevent it from damaging the acrylic… does that make sense?

[@Team90j97]

You can always use the painters tape method for registration marks. Make them fill layer.

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Good idea. I’ll keep that in my back pocket for next time. This was what I came up with under pressure but thankfully it was super quick and did the job. 🙌🏼

[@samechaleph1891]

aw, I love your model dog, sitting perfectly for the display! :) and wow what a huge job you did! glad that it went well! :) ps. I wonder why you didn't do a white spray paint right after the clear spray paint, it'll save you the time?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

Thank you! I’ve never had luck with spray paint. It still bleeds for me. ☹️

[@samechaleph1891]

@@ThatMomWithALaser oh didn't know that it'll still bleed... hopefully you'll find a way to solve it soon! :)

[@scoobydoobydoo8588]

couldn't you use air brush with acrylic paint to fill in the letters, or use heat infuse powder with the substrate you're using? there are two videos i saw on the later method, one from laser engraving 911 and the other is trotec laser usa.

[@RolandoZamarripa-tm9xc]

could you use an airbrush to paint with the acrylic?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

I bet you could but I don't have one.

[@lisaweaver3124]

Your remote you used is it an add on?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

It comes with the Novas and is an add on for the Miras

[@thebulldogchefs203]

Have you ever tried using a round stencil brush to fill your engraved letters?

[@ThatMomWithALaser]

I have not. I’ll need to try that. :)

[@user-ut4vm7pm8s]

Nice mam how to cut paper cut out in co2 lazer machine perfect way

[@elylioney6390]

Good doggy

[@tombergeron8992]

if you roll the masking it wont tear as bad

[@tombergeron8992]

for the paper masking

[@andygrether5549]

Question/Idea: I believe you engraved the top header part first so you knew where to adhere the gold acrylic letters after. (If that’s not correct, you can ignore the below question). instead of engraving the top header and then having to engrave all of the names in two sections and hoping you lined everything up correctly using the pass-through, couldn’t you have engraved all of the names in one section, and when it comes to the header (all the gold acrylic letters), couldn’t you have not engraved those and instead just cut a cardboard template for the gold acrylic letters so you know where to adhere them? This would avoid the whole two section / print + cut step.

[@MocSumi]

hello madam i am from bangladesh i do all design of laser cutting

[@YuumChaak]

Too much work and time wasted!! Its better that you remove the masking tape before engraving. Then paint and remove excess paint with a cloth.