“Laser test paper” is, of course, intended for testing lasers, but I thought it might make a outdoor plant tag. A while ago I tried some Trolase Thins acrylic for that job:
Which turned out to be entirely too stiff, which wasn’t surprising given that Trolase Thin is intended for signage stuck on flat or slightly curved surfaces.
Despite being “paper”, laser testing paper is also too stiff:
The wrinkles and cracks on the left end of the tags shows the plastic coating makes it basically impossible to shape / bend the paper enough to wrap around a plant stem, then push it through the hole (offscreen to the left). I was not surprised too much by this discovery.
Those two strips now hang outside the kitchen window (left end upward), where they’ll get enough sun and rain to keep a plant happy, and I’ll see how well the engraved / damaged plastic coating stands up to that sort of abuse.
For Science!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
6 responses to “Laser Test Paper: Outdoor Testing”
Maybe tyvek would work for the purpose.
Tyvek is a single layer of HDPE, which would likely melt rather than char into a visible pattern, but I’ve often been surprised at how stuff lasers. I must try engraving a Priority Mail envelope …
Interesting. Has anyone found a good material for outdoor plant labels?
Unfortunately, our machine doesn’t do stainless like these:
https://basillabels.co.uk/
I lust after a fiber laser capable of engraving metals, but … those would be really expensive tags. :grin:
Mary want some tags on the plants, rather than poked into the ground, and the next iteration will be edge-lit acrylic with a big hole relatively far from the edge. I don’t know how to attach tags to plants with permanence and without damage, which means we’ll try a few ideas and hope one works out.
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