[Photon713]

Gentlemen,

I have metal with engraved text that needs to be filled in with black paint.
The surrounding non-engraved areas are painted in OSHA yellow. I am trying to come up with a quick way to paint the text, fill it in temporarily to allow the surrounding area to be painted yellow and then clean out the filler.

Is there a substance that will allow me to fill in the painted text, overspray with yellow and wash out the filler leaving a sharp outline of the text?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Haydn]

If the lettering is quite large you may be able to paint the text. Lightly wet and dry to give a sharp edge. Silicone spray over lettering. Fill it with something soft like plasticene. Clean off the silicone overspray, spray yellow and pick out the plasticene.

I would have painted the metal yellow before engraving, then painted the lettering with a paint that wont react or bind with the yellow, water based maybe and just wiped the excess off.

[Photon713]

Thank You, Haydn...

I need to come up with a quick process that permits me to perform the painting quickly. I was hoping there was a substance that could fill the engraved text temporarily (after adding the black) and paint with yellow over this unknown substance. The substance would not allow the paint to adhere and would then just be dumped out leaving nice sharp edges behind.

I was able to do the following on a one's and two's basis. I sprayed the text in black. I filled the engraving with blue clay. I painted the remainder of the body, including over the text. After the yellow dried, I put the metal in a low heat oven and baked for about 45 minutes. The blue clay dried and became powdery. I then used a scribe to remove the blue clay. However, it was just too time consuming for a repetitive operation. I'm now checking into using a rubber stamp able to drop in black ink. I am hoping that someone has confronted this situation before and has a solution....Regards

[Haydn]

Could you do it with wax maybe? If your yellow paint isn't affected by petroleum spirit you could rub the text with a soaked cloth, that will lift the wax off?

[skippy]

Don't know if this will work on metal or not but in the case of acrylic, it comes with a paper protector layer. We used to engrave directly without removing the paper thereby creating a mask and allowing direct spraying of the engraved letters. In the case of metal I would (a) rough up the metal and spray your yellow (b) after drying of yellow, apply mask to the full face (mask is similar to vinyl used in vinyl lettering but specifically for cutting masks) even better if you have a roller system to avoid bubbles. (c) engrave lettering and spray black (d) remove mask.
There are also water based spray on masking materials as well. Same process as above, just wash off afterwards.

[Photon713]

Thank you again, Haydn...

I am not familiar with the process, but, will give it a try. I am using Rust-oleum High Performance Enamel, OSHA Safety Yellow as the primary color.
It cleans up with mineral spirits. I am assuming you are speaking of paraffin wax? I tested mineral spirits on the enamel and could see no evidence of paint removal. So, will pick up a little paraffin and give it a test. Thanks

[Photon713]

Thank you , Skippy...

Unfortunately, the raw metal is engraved before it get it. However, perhaps a precut mask might work. I will check the engraving company to see if they can CNC a cutout in appropriate material. Thanks for the suggestion.