Forget Cermark and Plaster of Paris, try this

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Slightly off topic, but I found out today that Cermark stings if it gets in your eye.

Yep, found out the hard way.

Chris, Can you test out the dry moly & motorcycle chain lube for us too?

Hope your eye is doing better.

[Dan Hintz]

Chris, Can you test out the dry moly & motorcycle chain lube for us too?

Hope your eye is doing better.

He has one good one left, I don't see why not...

[Robert Silvers]

I don't see any reason why CeraMark would be faster. I think the people using the Moly spray just happen to have never tried it at the same time as CeraMark because they don't want to spend $75 to compare them.

Do we think these will work?

http://www.amazon.com/ANTI-SEIZE-TEC...6885209&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/CRC-Quick-Moly...885462&sr=8-12

I ordered both and will report back on April 1st.

[Clark Pace]

$22 per can? Wow .. I saw it somewhere for $60 for a case!

I tried the grainger version and it worked, but 3% speed it way to slow. It don't have that kind of time to wait for an engrave. cermark etches much faster for me.

[Jeff Bromagem]

Does this on other metals such as aluminum, chrome plated steel, etc. or just stainless?
Thanks.

[Clark Pace]

I don't see any reason why CeraMark would be faster. I think the people using the Moly spray just happen to have never tried it at the same time as CeraMark because they don't want to spend $75 to compare them.

Do we think these will work?

http://www.amazon.com/ANTI-SEIZE-TEC...6885209&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/CRC-Quick-Moly...885462&sr=8-12

I ordered both and will report back on April 1st.

No sure. But bermark takes less power than moly for me, and I had to run my laser much slower with moly. With cermark I can run it at about 50% speed. Moly around 5%

[Ernie Balch]

I can mark SS directly without any Cermark or moly spray. I don't make a practice of this because the reflected beam might cause damage to my optics. I learned not to do this when marking a curved part sent the reflected beam into my red laser and destroyed it.

ernie

[Don Corbeil]

I happen to have a very dependable local supplier, just a short drive up into the san juan mountains to the climax molybdenum mine

[Greg Mortensen]

I recently played with Dry Moly thanks to finding this particular topic via Google, it sure works a treat.

Cermark in Australia is about $150 (sold by Trotec Australia), there's another company that makes a clone of Cermark for about $110 (O'Brien Engineering).
Dry Moly spray costs about $23 at an industrial hardware shop www.blackwoods.com.au (sadly one of the few in the country that actually stock dry moly).

I've done a few tests last night and seems to work well, so after I'm done tweaking the power vs speed, I'll probably start having a go at engraving a mug or flask.

[Neville Stewart]

Ok thought I would give this a go as wanted to try metal engraving for the first time since I got my Speedy 300 in March.

Purchased can of dry moly spray (under £17 here in UK).
Method... Clean with Isopropol Alcohol, spray with moly until black, wait until dry (about 2 or 3 mins), laser, clean with alcohol.

Look at this great result on a steel hammer head... Power 100, Speed 10.

Steve - how are you measuring your laser power ( 89.9 on an 80 Im guessing? )

[John Lifer]

One thing I've noticed in trying to figure out which Cermark to purchase is that in looking at the MSDS of all of the Ferro items, (Cermark and Thermark) is that Molybdenum Disulfite is NOT the constituent in ANY of the formulas. it is Molydbenum Trioxide. A much different substance. And they all contain Mica and at least one metal, Iron, nickel, chromium or manganese. I expect we have a chemical reaction with the trioxide and the mica (form of silica which is another chemical in several formulas) and the metal. The Disulfite might work to a degree, but the sulfur might be getting in the way.
But that is the problem with the moly lubes.
I'm kind of tempted to buy some of each of the chemicals in the formulas and play with making my own..... only about $50 to try and I'll have everything about the time my laser shows up...... But % of each is proprietary and I think it would be hard to determine. I really don't want to pay relatively big $ for the Cermark, but I for sure don't want to run at 10% of the speed either. Kind of defeats the purpose of reducing cost.

[Kev Williams]

This may not be accurate (no stretch), but--
One of my wife's hobbies is ceramics. She/we haven't messed with them in years, but we still have a kiln, and a garage full of molds. One of the things that always intrigued me was the change that takes place in a 2000° kiln, whereas fragile clay greenware turns pure white and hard as stone...

Ergo, I've always considered the distinct possibility that, because intense heat is a common denominator, CERmark may contain at least some ingredients found in CERamic slip; soda ash, talc, sodium silicate, barium carbonate, whatever's in the different clays, or possibly ingredients in porcelain, etc... But then, I'm no Walter White

[John Lifer]

Kind of my thoughts as well. Like I posted, I'm leaning towards experimentation

[Klaus Madsen]

Yeah Great I found this because I was holding back on all Metal Engraving because Cermark is way to expensive.

Got the Dry Moly and tried it out Yesterday, I'm quite happy with the result.
This is made with two layers of Dry Moly, let dry for an hour, engrave with 225m/s and 65% power in RDWorks, which on my machine is equal to around 100W.
And yes I know the logo is "hanging" to low
Flask.jpg

[Kev Williams]

I'll have to locate some 'dry' moly- I have tons of 'wet' moly - a quart can of MP-50 Moly Paste and a can of Moly spray lube--

no matter how I've tried using them, they do absolutely nothing except stink up the joint...