Engraving on metal compound $20 for one year

[douglas rubio]

my apologies, I though that you all were still on theory, but after reading through the entire post I realized that you guys had this thing working already. I guess I'll have to join in now!!

[Rodne Gold]

Well , at least it adds another type of marking to the list..not so sure whether a white/frosted type marking would be a huge seller tho...
What about trying to add something like laser printer toner to the mix?
There are obviously other compounds other than cerdec that do give black results however , as I have had folk send me their "secret" recipes which do seem to do the same job as Cerdec at a far lower cost , however the results have not been as consistent and resistant and the one time we did use alternatives on a large job , it came back to bite us as the marking started dissapearing over time.
My take is that the amount of marking material is a small cost component of the job , yes , you might make a little more profit or be able to do it cheaper with something else , but not substantially so if you consider the job as a whole.
I recover almost all unused marking compound and find that the small amounts we use up to be small fry money wise.
I also found a "hidden" marking method , I was using bright gold and silver anacoil (the trophy plate stuff) and found that using high power and rastering thru masking tape left a darkish brown permanent mark on the material...never really used it as most of my customers dont want a darkish brown mark
I have never tried it , but I would imagine that some glazes in the pottery world would probably work with substrates that could accept a glaze , like metals and ceramics and so on.

[Dan Hintz]

Rodney,

Assuming Christmas wrapping/shipping doesn't get in the way this weekend, I have a series of experiments planned to extend my previous work with colorants. The results have been very promising so far, I just don't have as much time as I would like to play. I know I'll be making a marble memorial plaque this weekend, so already being at the laser should prompt me to keep going for the day. I'll be sure to post what I come up with.

[Mike Milli]

Dan, in the sake of experimentation, the material I was testing was 416F stainless. It is what all of my barrels are made of. Much easier to machine than the more corrosion resistant 300 series of stainless.

I have a 308 SS plate I may try it on, but I guess for me it's really accademic as all I ever have to engrave for stainless is the 416.

[douglas rubio]

ok so I decided to give this a shot.
1st it works well on steel
2nd when i tried to engrave on aluminum the heat bent the metal and I only managed to get a white engraving.

I would like to know if there is anything I can add to make black marks on aluminum?

[Dan Hintz]

I would like to know if there is anything I can add to make black marks on aluminum?

Hopefully I'll have an answer for you after Christmas when my schedule lightens up a bit.

[Ed Kloppenburg]

I was wondering if anyone else has tried this formula. The post sounds interesting but just died.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I checked this out...from my experience with this, forget the chrome polish. Just get the plaster of paris and mix it with some rubbing alcohol to thin it out. I had a stainless knife at the office that I was able to etch on. Making the solution very thin allowed me to just pour it on the blade. I took a lighter to burn off the alcohol because I did not want to wait for it too dry. What was left was a very thin even layer of the plaster of paris. I etched at 100 power and 1-5 speed for testing (on a 35W). I found the 3 percent speed at 100 percent power made a "deep" dark etch onto the stainless. I probably should upload a picture...it's very evident by looking at the knife that the plaster did allow the laser to etch into the metal, not just mark the surface.

[Michael Hunter]

I finally got my hands on some plaster of paris last week and had a play today.

I mixed the plaster with some methylated spirits and like Chris below, ignored the chrome polish. Painted it onto stainless steel sheets and let it dry.

Rastering was very very slow and the results hardly outstanding. The machine time was so long that this would not be a "cheap" method (the main constituent of my pricing is machine time).

Vectoring was another matter : the results are very good for simple part marking and good enough to do logos etc. (so long as it was for the back panel rather than the front).
The results were hardly affected by speed - I tried from 10% to 100% speed at full power and top frequency with little variation in the end result. 70% speed seems to be about optimum with my 60W laser.

The engraving does seem to etch into the metal surface a little bit : see the photo below where I attacked it with emery cloth.

I need to do a longer term test - leaving a piece in the bilges of my boat to see if it rusts around the engraving, but meanwhile for dry use it is a great method.


A big thanks to Sergio for inventing/discovering this process.

[Dan Hintz]

Michael,

I see some real squigglies in your curves and angled lines...

[Michael Hunter]

Dan - Yup, the Epilog shimmy has got to me. I think that the X bearing needs more pre-load, but my Epilog dealer tells me the bearing is not adjustable. Can't get truly round circles either, which is even more annoying.

[Bob Argus]

Eric

with this compound you will only be able to make a white engraving on aluminum, on steel it's a different story, the lower the speed you use the darker the engraving will get. I'm currently working on something new that you may like....colors*hint*hint*

Do you have any update on your testing results for getting color on metals?

[Dan Hintz]

Do you have any update on your testing results for getting color on metals?

I was able to get a dark red (like a burgundy) with my own formulation, still working on a bright red when time permits (yeah, I have soooo much of THAT , especially now that the Stinger will be arriving soon).

[Bob Argus]

I was able to get a dark red (like a burgundy) with my own formulation, still working on a bright red when time permits (yeah, I have soooo much of THAT , especially now that the Stinger will be arriving soon).

Would you care to share the burgundy formulation?

[Dan Hintz]

It will most likely be in my book, along with a number of other formulations... sorry to make you wait.