Looking for pictures of engraved clear anodized aluminum.

[Dan Hintz]

Well, if you want to engrave, you know as well as any the YAG is your only option (with what you have in house)... the CO2 is out of the picture (unless you want to mask, cut with the CO2, then electro-engrave). With a proper fixture, you can engrave in one area, shift, then engrave the next area over... but your fixture will need tight tolerances to avoid seeing any gap or overlap. If the engraved area (to depth) is large (you mention circular marks), you could simulate that look with some final passes of the YAG on a lower setting in a circular motion. Don't know how it would look, but with some tweaking you could probably get it to look about right.

Or maybe a steel stamp and press would give them a fast engraving (if the aluminum alloy is soft, the stamp wouldn't have to be terribly hard/expensive). Though you would get the circular pattern without a lot of extra work on the stamp, and I'm not sure that kind of detail would last very many stampings.

[Rodne Gold]

Easier to send it out to someone that actually does engine turning or DIY
http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/thr...pt-at-Jeweling

[Joe Hillmann]

Easier to send it out to someone that actually does engine turning or DIY
http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/thr...pt-at-Jeweling

That is engine turning, not rose turning, engine turning is just a spinning wooden rod with polishing compund, rose engine turning is kind of like a diamond drag that is spinning in several directions at once making use of several cams and patterns. It is most often done on a rose engine lathe and done on wooden parts.

[Joe Hillmann]

Well, if you want to engrave, you know as well as any the YAG is your only option (with what you have in house)... the CO2 is out of the picture (unless you want to mask, cut with the CO2, then electro-engrave). With a proper fixture, you can engrave in one area, shift, then engrave the next area over... but your fixture will need tight tolerances to avoid seeing any gap or overlap. If the engraved area (to depth) is large (you mention circular marks), you could simulate that look with some final passes of the YAG on a lower setting in a circular motion. Don't know how it would look, but with some tweaking you could probably get it to look about right.

Or maybe a steel stamp and press would give them a fast engraving (if the aluminum alloy is soft, the stamp wouldn't have to be terribly hard/expensive). Though you would get the circular pattern without a lot of extra work on the stamp, and I'm not sure that kind of detail would last very many stampings.

The moving of the parts to tight tolerances is the problem with using the yag. I did some testing and keeping the .030" gap between the diamonds was very difficult and just a few thousandths off becomes noticeable. Which is why I designed the vernier scale to mount to an x y table. I don't think I will worry about the circles in the pattern, but I hadn't thought of running another pass once I had it to depth. I may give that a try. They were able to find someone who was going to try and match what they had but at an estimated cost of $600 per panel.

[Bill Cunningham]

Sounds like metallic Jewelling. I used to achieve this look on aluminum by buffing the surface with a firm eraser in a drill press. Just bring the eraser down spinning, and overlap the burnishing marks until the surface is covered. But it's not a diamond look unless you can burnish that shape with multiple swirrels
JewelledBarrelSig3942.JPG