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Laser Marking Steel

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awemawson:
Cheap imported 50 watt laser engraver / cutters won't cut metals, or engrave them without jumping through hoops. There is a hugely expensive spray, meant for marking steel with a laser, that contains exotic ceramic materials that the laser presumably fuses and effectively marks the steel. But it also marks you wallet at £100 per aerosol can  :bugeye:

On another forum John Stevenson mentioned that he'd been using Ambersil 'Dry Moly' for the same purpose and it was effective. As this is far less expensive (I paid £14.99 including postage) I thought it worth a try, and ordered some, which arrived today.

The 'Dry Moly' is resin bonded according to the can - possibly it's the resin rather than the molybdenum disulphide that's doing the work, but hey, it works so I thought I show you the results.

This is a 20 mm square HSS form tool that according to the date I put on it, I've had since at least 9/4/89 as I've marked it with an electric Actograph pen with that date. How things have progress since 1989 in the home workshop  :ddb:

The result seems quite durable but I've not tried to scrape it off yet !

edward:
A chap I know runs an engineering company making all sorts of complicated valves and things. He has a machine that fuses glass beads to Stainless to make I.D. plates and instructions using a laser. The results are excellent but I suspect the machine might be pretty expensive. I can find out what it is if you would be interested.

RobWilson:
Impressive Andrew


Nice and crisp  :thumbup:


Rob

RotarySMP:
Now you can go into business printing "Laser Metal Etching Spray" labels, sicking them on 15 quid cans of Moly, and selling them on Ebay for 75 quid. Only the Chinese have probably already read your post and cornered the market.

Mark

Jonny:
I was after something pro 5 years back not wanting the down time sourcing out and came across this link.
http://www.etch-o-matic.com/eom.htm

Several emails to buy, no reply sod him.

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