Hey everyone,
I wanted to share on my technique for masking a CNC project.
Materials : 1/2" Birch Ply, any dark Rustoleum stain ( stain only- not a stain poly mixture), Oramask 813, something similar to a credit card, White Satin Rustoleum spray paint, latex gloves, tweezers and 1/16" downcut bit (I got mine from Drillman1 on eBay)
Step 1:
I applied two coats of dark stain to the Birch Plywood (or whatever wood your using)
I didn’t let much time pass between coats but I did sand with 320 grit before and in-between coats.
I let that sit for about 45 min to an hour.
Step 2:
I applied the Oramask 813 to the stained Birch Plywood. I used an old Costco card to get all of the bubbles out and then used the entire roll of Oramask kind of like a rolling pin just to add a little more pressure.
I let that sit for about an hour and a half.
Step 3:
I secured the stained Plywood with the Oramask on it to my xCarve and just used the suggested setting for the Birch Plywood.
I used a 1/16" downcut bit from Drillman1 on eBay. (I am going to try a 1/8th bit next and see if I get the same results)
Step 4:
Begin Carve
Step 5:
I put the sign on top of a piece of cardboard and used white spray paint.
I really did not do much clean up at all after taking the sign off the xCarve. It was very clean.
Step 6:
Pretty much immediately after spray painting I began pulling the Oramask off. It really wasn’t as difficult as I had heard some people say but it did pull up a couple little spots of plywood. Not very noticeable.
This part was the most difficult and I should have been a little more careful but fortunately I only got one little spot of white paint on the dark part of sign and it was from my finger. After I got the majority of the Oramask off, I used an old pari of tweezer to get the small pieces off.
You can see the little white smudge at the very top
The picture also kind of makes the dark stain look a little uneven but it doesn’t really look like that in person.
Step 7:
Let the spray paint continue to dry and its done!
PLEASE NOTE:
I did not use any kind of dust collection because I didn’t want the Oramask to accidentally pull up.
Lastly, I used this technique so I can use cheap 1/2" Birch Plywood from Home Depot. Sometimes on the layers of ply you can get some ugly green color or an unexpected knot. This way the part that is carved out is nice and white and has a high contrast