Gasketing contour cut material - tips?

[smholm22]

Hey y'all -- wondering if anyone has any unique tips for getting a good gasket on contour cut parts? We print a lot of CNC cut pieces. The more complex the cut, the more time it takes. More frustratingly, with interior corners / curves, it's not infrequent that, if there isn't a perfect gasket, after the print is done we see the vacuum has pulled ink 'off course' and ruined the print.

I was considering trying Poster Putty, but have concern about the vacuum pulling that down into it and gumming something up.

My current approach is to just use masking tape around the bottom edge and when I have one of those tight interior corners / curves, to just slam down tape over and over again until I hopefully hear the vacuum become muffled.

Anyway, appreciate it greatly if anyone has any advice. Thanks!

 

[johnnysigns]

We've laser cut or CNC cut templates of the shape in the past in SBS/Styrene/1/8"acrylic to mask areas for small or complex parts. Not sure if that's a possibility.

 

[alevit53]

Put holding tabs on them so they don't pop up. Turn the piece over and cut the tabs.

 

[White Haus]

Have you tried putting craft paper down on the whole bed before laying your pieces down?

I remember Canon suggesting we do this for shape cut pieces but I can't say we've ever tried it. We usually do the same as you, mask off big areas with lexan or styrene then fill in the rest w/ tape. Not super ideal when you're doing lots of different pieces/sizes.

 

[smholm22]

Have you tried putting craft paper down on the whole bed before laying your pieces down?

I remember Canon suggesting we do this for shape cut pieces but I can't say we've ever tried it. We usually do the same as you, mask off big areas with lexan or styrene then fill in the rest w/ tape. Not super ideal when you're doing lots of different pieces/sizes.

I've seen this suggestion as well and we've tried it. For our most unruly pieces it's not effective enough -- we run a lot of parts that are multiple times laminated and have a strong bow in them so a full gasket is required.

It's not so much that I'm trying to increase speed / efficiency, but find a more effective method that seals every little spot so that the vacuum doesn't re-route ink off it's course and leave streaks. This discussion has made me realize I could try putting mask or tape on the backside of one of those spaces -- spanning the negative space -- so that my tape gasket doesn't need to go inside such an extreme angle / corner.