gun shop wants engraving

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Can you laser a blued gun barrel?
I have a gun shop owner that asked me what types of gun I could engrave.
SS came to mind, But I did know about the rest.
Any hints?

Thanks

[Rob Bosworth]

I have never had great results laser engraving with a CO2 laser on blued steel. It comes out rather dull, without a whole lot of contrast. I have seen YAG markers do a pretty good job on blued steel.

Now, on the SS, you should get great results.

You also can mention how nice the engraving comes out on wood stocks, forearms, grips.

Good luck.

[Joe Pelonio]

This is a good time to make sure you have business insurance, that will cover damage to an expensive gun should something go wrong while in the laser!

[Gary Hair]

Paul,
Funny you should post this today... I just finished up lasering 4 Glocks for a customer last Friday. They are all blued finish. I told him I wasn't sure how lasering them would turn out but if he was willing to let me experiment on the inside of one of them I would be happy to try it. He gave me the slide from one to test. I cleaned the upper inside of it with alcohol, as I always do for Cermark - the inside opposite side from the front sight. I applied Cermark and lasered as I normally would steel - 100% power and 10% speed. Before I moved it I lasered another spot at 100% power and 5% speed. I wiped off the Cermark and was very surprised that there was a very good mark on the surface. None of the Cermark stuck, but I'm not too surprised at that. I lasered it again without Cermark and at 10% speed and the result was the same. I showed it to the customer and he was very happy with it and gave me the go ahead to do all 4 of them on the outside of the slide. I lasered his logo and 4 different names and they all turned out fantastic. He could not have been happier with the results.

I did have him sign a waiver of liability - I made it very clear that I had no idea how long the mark would last, what would happen to the metal where I marked and what might happen if they needed to be reblued. He was aware that the mark he sees today may rust, fade, etc. I asked him to let me know how they hold up.

Get a waiver signed but don't be afraid of this project. Make sure you can test on the inside area somewhere inconspicuous and that the customer is happy with the results.

Go for it!

Gary

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

Actually the guy brought me an old gun he keeps around his house for me to "play" with. Barrel is blued, just thought I would ask here first.
I do have bus. ins. and the mall is letting him open the gun shop here, so I hope HE has better ins.
I never realy thought about other parts of the gun. Are Ivory handles really ivory? How do they laser?

Not afraid of the project, and not afraid to ask others to help shorten the learning curve either.

thanks for the input.

[Frank Corker]

Make sure it's not loaded, I find those bullets really sting!

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

That's OK, I have a CCW permit.

[Danny Nichols]

Seems I remember that much of Glocks are not metal but some kind of poly something or other, is that right.

[Robert McGowen]

The slide is metal. The grips are molded into the frame and they are indeed a type of plastic.

[Joe Chritz]

Glocks aren't blued which is likely what you were thinking. The finish is tennifer which is a very hard, scratch resistant coating. You should get similar results to anodized aluminum.

Blued steel should do ok but the bluing is a chemical reaction similar to rusting and isn't a true coating so the mark is likely to be much less detailed and may look washed out.

I engrave all my magazines to keep them from walking off at range sessions and they work pretty well.

Joe

[Bill Cunningham]

Not a big Glock fan!! Just found they sometimes have a problem when you load heavy

[Lee DeRaud]

Glocks aren't blued which is likely what you were thinking. The finish is tennifer which is a very hard, scratch resistant coating. You should get similar results to anodized aluminum.The black on a Glock slide is phosphate (similar to parkerizing), so I expect it would engrave quite nicely*. The tennifer is a colorless chemical treatment under that on the bare metal: you can bead-blast the black completely off a Glock slide without harming the tennifer coating.

(*The odd thing is, I've had the laser for 3+ years and the oldest Glock a lot longer than that: you'd think it would have occurred to me to try engraving one of them, but it never has before now...go figure. :p)

[Mike Null]

Lee

Show us the results of your new "discovery".

[Lee DeRaud]

Lee

Show us the results of your new "discovery".I've got that one filed under "something to try as soon as the UPS guy shows up with my Round Tuit"...maybe later this week.
I engrave all my magazines to keep them from walking off at range sessions and they work pretty well.Something else to try. Dunno how well the Glock polymer will work, but I've got a couple of POS 10-rounders to experiment with. I've also got some mag extensions installed that are machined delrin: according to the ULS book, that should work fine.