I am waiting on my 1F, and spending time reading and watching YT vids on the machine. A few videos show users taping down a sheet of paper over their work piece and then carving the workpiece through the paper. Any reasons why they would do this?
I’ve seen people using a masking sheet like Oramask over their work so they can paint the carved areas after and the mask protects the uncarved areas of the work. I’ve not come across paper other than for manual probing.
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I do that (and use a vinyl transfer masking paper - it’s not vinyl though) for my laser projects. A handy tip is to spray the piece with poly or lacquer before painting. That will seal the edges of the engrave so it doesn’t wick up the paint. Similarly, when doing epoxy inlays, brushing a coat of clear epoxy can stop the colored epoxy from wicking into the wood as well.
I hate throwing away the masking (Oracal isn’t cheap) but I hate having a project messed up by my painting skills 
I too have seen the oramask option, and it makes sense if you are painting something. Here is one of the YT vids of someone using just a plain old sheet of paper…
Hmmm, I can’t imagine what paper would buy you for carving. The idea with Oramask is to stop the paint from bleeding. Paper won’t do that, and won’t help with the surface finish either. Curious.
-Tom
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