• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Rapid-3D-logo-header-web-site

Rapid 3D

Professional, Industrial & Production 3D Printers South Africa

  • Industrial 3D Printing

    Industrial 3D Printing

    Production 3D Printing Equipment to take you from Concept to finished product.
    Join the Innovators & Early Adopters who have been using production 3D printing as a competitive advantage for over 20 years.
    • 3D Printing Technology
    • Additive Manufacturing
    • Rapid Manufacturing
    • Rapid Prototyping
    • Case Studies
  • Products & Services

    3D Printers | 3D Scanners | 3D Design Software

    The right 3D printing solution for your production – including certified materials, consulting and a comprehensive range of services.
    The right 3D printing solution for your production – including certified materials, consulting and a comprehensive range of services.
    • Metal 3D Printers
    • Polymer Plastic 3D Printers
    • Professional 3D Scanning
    • Additive Manufacturing Consulting
  • Post-Processing Systems

    Post-Processing Systems for 3D Printing Work-flows

    Post-Processing Systems for 3D Printing Work-flows
    Turn your unfinished 3D printed polymer parts into High-Value products.
    • 3D Printing Post-Processing – Cleaning
    • 3D Printing Post-Processing – Surfacing
    • 3D Printing Post-Processing – DeepDye Colouring
    • 3D Printed Metal Surface Finishing
    • Furnaces for Metal 3D Printing
  • 3D Printing South Africa
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / 3D Printing News / Fill your Engraved labels with Markforged engraver filler!

Fill your Engraved labels with Markforged engraver filler!

by Rapid 3D

If you only need to add easily readable lettering or some highlighted trim to your parts, these processes can be a little lengthy. Especially in the manufacturing industry, manufacturers need to label their tooling and fixtures to make them easily identifiable.
With similarly shaped parts, labeling your tooling is critical!
Below we’ll cover a simple trick to clearly label and finish 3D printed parts using engraver filler. We learned this process from a customer, and we’re excited to share it!

Selecting the Engraver Filler

If you aren’t familiar with engraver filler, it is used to colour etchings and engravings by filling them with a wax substance.
One common place you can find it is on bowling balls – manufacturer logos are etched into bowling balls, and engraver filler is used to give the logos colour.
The engraver filler used is meant for bowling balls, but it still works on pretty much anything engraved. For tooling and fixtures, the labels need to stand out, so  fluorescent colours stand out.
One of the things you need to be careful about is the design of the engraving itself – this you will need to do in the CAD program the part is designed in.
The filler will catch and fill the inset sections of the part. This means you need to cut the shape or text into the part model in your design program.

Print your Parts!

Print the part out – Engravings work best on the top or side faces of a part during printing.
If you have engravings on the bottom of your part, you may want to add a chamfer to the edges of the engraving so that it doesn’t need support material.

‍Engrave text in CAD by typing out text in a sketch and extrude-cutting the text into the face of the part.
‍Engrave text in CAD by typing out text in a sketch and extrude-cutting the text into the face of the part.

Full in your engraved part!

Wipe the tip of the engraver filler stick back and forth across the part you are working with – the surface will cover in engraver filler, but that’s ok – it isn’t permanent.

‍A unit test for engraving depth. 0.5 mm produced the best results.
‍A unit test for engraving depth. 0.5 mm produced the best results.

If you wipe across the engraving instead of along it, the material will fill better because it catches on the corners of the engraving.
Get a paper towel and wipe off the engraver filler on the surface. You’ll notice that the filler only sticks when it is within a cavity of the part, so all text and cracks get filled in. In some cases a wet paper towel worked well to remove all excess.
‍Wipe the tip of the engraver filler across the part.
‍Wipe the tip of the engraver filler across the part.
Wipe the excess off with a paper towel or cloth. A wet cloth may help if some of the excess material is being difficult.
Wipe the excess off with a paper towel or cloth. A wet cloth may help if some of the excess material is being difficult.



The engraver filler is a great and simple trick for labeling parts like tooling and fixtures or adding a nice highlight, but in a few cases it doesn’t work very well.
The material itself is waxy, so it can wear easily if constantly rubbing against something.

Share this post:

Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Share on WhatsApp Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Email

3D Printing News, How To, Markforged

Rapid 3D

Copyright Rapid 3D © 2012–2021

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions of Service
  • Our Story
  • FAQ
  • Contact Rapid 3D South Africa