Masking Transfer Tape

Lasers
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To mask things, before cutting/engraving, I like to use vinyl lettering transfer tape. In particular I recommend RTape Conform 4075RLA Transfer Tape. It is categorized as high tack but it seems to be more of a medium tack, which means it holds fairly well but isn’t very difficult to remove. I buy 8.5" wide rolls from SignWarehouse. At 100 yds it lasts a good while.

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How does one use transfer tape and why?
Thanks

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When you engrave/cut wood you can get residue build up / scorch marks on the wood. To eliminate having to do any post sanding clean up, which isn’t necessarily easy or quick, you can mask your workpiece first. You can use painters tape, but usually you can’t get that really wider than like 2 inches. So if your work area is bigger than this then you have to butt piece together, which can be tricky. The transfer tape is available in wider formats so it’s easier to mask something in one go. You also will want to mask if you are planning to infill the engraved area with with something like paint.

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When using transfer tape it’s also advisable to get a (4-6") ink brayer roller like the one below. Makes getting a smooth lay down of the tape much easier and also allows to make sure it’s sealed down tight.

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Thanks for the answer, I have that type of tape now as I do vinyl letting and decals. Just started to get into laser cutting/engraving.
Ron

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Trying to shop around, mostly just because I don’t need to buy 100 yards. I know vinyl is bad to laser cut. But I’m having trouble interpreting descriptions, for example

"Our PAPER transfer tape is a versatile MEDIUM TACK tape for applying craft and sign vinyl to applicable surfaces. NOT FOR USE WITH HEAT TRANSFER VINYL OR ANY LASER CUTTERS, ENGRAVERS or LASER DEVICES

“Paper” being in bold makes me think the tape is not vinyl, but they still say no lasers. It’s a matte white which looks like masking tape, which makes me think it’s fine. Rather than the crystal clear ones that seem to me to be more likely some sort of bad plastic/vinyl.

But I’m just making this all up. Any advice?

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I’ve seen this before. I think it’s because they probably got too many complaints from people trying to use this as laser masking, which is not it’s intended purpose. So they are trying to prevent people from buying for laser masking so that doesn’t weight down on their reviews. I don’t think it’s something that’s unsafe, probably just not enough tack.

Yes, paper backed masking will be matte white.

As I stated above, this is stuff I use which works great, but it is 100 yards (R-tape Conform 4075RAL)

Cheapest I can currently find the 8.5" width is Ebay (which fit’s the max width of a k40)

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This is transfer tape used with vinyl lettering and is not vinyl itself. How it is used in Vinyl working:

  1. Vinyl has a very sticky side with paper protecting it while it is cut.
  2. you want to stick the vinyl to stuff but you don’t want to just free-hand it and that’s where the xfer tape comes in.
  3. you lay out a length of the xfer tape with it’s tacky side up and you stick the vinyl design to it so that the paper side is facing up.
  4. remove the paper from the vinyl design and DO NOT touch the sticky side of the vinyl
  5. carefully lift the whole design(attached to the xfer tape) and stick it to what the vinyl design is supposed to go onto. The very sticky vinyl will stick really good. the xfer tape won’t stick much.
  6. carefully remove the transfer tape.

For laser cutting it’s just to keep the burning and smoke from staining the wood/design.

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I also use the tape for engraving on ply to cut down on sanding the staining. Just a word to the wise, transfer tape as already stated comes in different tackiness/stickiness. For my sign making I use low tack tape which is fine for vinyl. However the low tack means I don’t get good adhesion on ply. Subsequently it can peel up. This happened to me and the tape caught fire whilst I was cutting. At that time I didn’t have air assist. The fire managed to burn a hole in the perspex lid. Luckily I never leave the machine unattended and managed to stop the machine and put out the fire.

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