Engraving Gold with a Fiber Laser?

[Bill George]

Never had a call for it before, customer wanted to engrave something on a 18k gold ring, can I do with my 20w Galvo Fiber?

[Jacob John]

I'm still learning all the different settings for Stainless Steel (of which there are a ton!) so I've yet to venture into the precious metal realm. I hope to soon, but for now I wait. If you do, give us an update!

[Tim Bateson]

This was done with a 30 watt gantry, so a 20 watt galvo should have no problem.

Gold_Lion2_w.jpg

[Jacob John]

Tim, you have a 50 watt! Get to it!

[Tim Bateson]

I do now, but not when I engraved that gold plate. I may be worried now with using too much power.

[Jacob John]

Funny I commented in this thread and now have a question. I've actually been asked to engrave on 24K gold plated stainless steel, but I'm real worried about bounce back. First, should this be a real concern, and second, any baseline setting recommendations? I'll likely call Tykma to see if they can provide me with settings, but figured I'd ask here as well.

[Neville Stewart]

Offset the part on any highly reflective material ,but your laser source has built in protection against back scatter.

[Jacob John]

Offset the part on any highly reflective material ,but your laser source has built in protection against back scatter.

Thanks for that Neville, easy enough to do.

[John Lifer]

Answer is Yes you can. I took one of my rings and put my initials in 3mm font on inside with metal silver settings. 2000 speed, 100% power 65 freq. 2 pass. 90 degree .02 hatch.
Nice white engraving that was deeper than just surface mark.

[Jacob John]

Answer is Yes you can. I took one of my rings and put my initials in 3mm font on inside with metal silver settings. 2000 speed, 100% power 65 freq. 2 pass. 90 degree .02 hatch.
Nice white engraving that was deeper than just surface mark.

How would that affect gold plated though because the underlying material is still stainless steel? Looking at the pieces I ordered, I don't think the plating is thick enough to avoid the beam hitting the SS. It's not very reflective either for some reason.

[John Lifer]

It would go the the gold plate easy, and same settings should engrave into the ss. You might could run annealing pass on the ss to darken it. I guess I should go borrow some of my wife's plated jewelry and test

[Tim Bateson]

... I guess I should go borrow some of my wife's plated jewelry and test

Could you name me in your Will, BEFORE you try that?

[Bill George]

FYI I only tried once to do a gold ring, my own and had no success.

[John Lifer]

Could you name me in your Will, BEFORE you try that?

NAhhh.....

She told me to do my own ring dagnabit!