removing cermark?

[Jimmy L Taylor]

Im doing some stainless flask with cermark for wedding party gifts for a customer. Turning out great except the last one. the vibration of the carriage moving back and forth caused the flask to turn slightly causing the text to get lasered crooked. Does anyone have any easy ways to remove the cermark? it is bruched stainless so Im hoping I can sand it lightly...Ive already tried to locate another flask and they came from an on base px so I cant get another. havent been able to locate one anywhere else and Im on a timeline so this is my only option at this point. Thanks!!

[Emma austin]

I was under the impression that it CANT be removed, and that was one of the selling points?

[Gary Hair]

It can be removed but removing it will involve removing metal along with it. Even though it sticks to the surface, it will stain the metal fairly deep. If you have a metal fab shop around ask them if they can remove it and re-grain the flask. It's not going to be cheap but you might make a good contact at the shop and get referral business from them.

Gary

[Gary Hair]

I was under the impression that it CANT be removed, and that was one of the selling points?

It can be removed but it's stuck pretty well. I have a customer that I mark .020 thick stainless with Cermark and they run them for 4 hours in a vibratory tumbler to remove machining burrs. The Cermarked parts coming out of the tumbler look virtually identical to when they were put in..

Gary

[Greg Bednar]

I've had good luck with an air eraser and aluminum oxide as the blasting medium. Then buff flask ever so lightly with a wire wheel. Realistically, you may never get a uniform finish like the original, but Gary has a good idea for the entire flask after the blast that might not take so long as 4 hours. Cermark™ is tough stuff.

[Bruce Boone]

I remove it all the time. It needs to be sanded through with a coarse enough grit to get below it (I use 1" rotary sanding discs on a Foredom rotary tool) then the metal finished with a finer disc like 400 to get the previous grit marks out. The item can then be refinished with a sanding sponge to the original finish. Using too fine a grit or a beadblaster will highlight the harder ceramic and leave an impression of where the artwork was.

[Rodne Gold]

A buffing machine using a "scotchbrite" satinising type mop/wheel removes it fairly well and gives a brushed finish , you cannot remove the "heat stress" marks that result from the laser process of "glazing" the cerdec on , but if you recoat and engrave in more or less the same position , these are mostly covered up.

[Mike Null]

I have removed it several times using a series of varying grits of sandpaper and if it needs a polished finish with emery cloth. It's tedious but it can be done.

Still it's safe to say Cermark is a permanent mark because just about any mark can be removed when you remove metal too.

[Rodne Gold]

Mike, we engraved about 100 SS flasks wrong , we had to stick the things in a lathe and turn em to fix it. Luckily they had a "lathed mark" finish - ie brushed round the circumference. Sometimes you just cant replicate the finish tho and then its replacement time.
I would love a way of removing the "stain" you sometimes get with it where its applied.

[Mike Null]

You're absolutely right.

[Jimmy L Taylor]

I got it off. used some 400 grit sand paper and lots of elbow grease followed by 600 and then 1000. Turned out ok but I couldnt get the exact finish it had before. Customer had to have it today so I gave it to her and offered the one for free and to make a new one if she can get another flask from the px on base...I am waiting to see what she says...

[Bill Cunningham]

If you value your time, it would probably just be cheaper to replace the flask..

[Jimmy L Taylor]

If you value your time, it would probably just be cheaper to replace the flask..

it is cheaper to replace but as I said in the original post I cant get the flask locally, and couldnt find them anywhere online. They were supplied by the customer and she got them from a on base military px store. You must have a military ID to get anywhere near it. I had to have them done today so I had no choice. It looks fine, and if I didnt have two others identical to it you would never know it, but when you put them side by side you can see the difference in the finish. This is the reason I dont like using customer supplied products but sometimes you do things you dont always want to do...

[Bill Cunningham]

Yup! Sometimes customer stuff just can't be replaced... Glad you got it fixed up to their satisfaction though. I've been lucky so-far... Should not have wrote that..ha.. I got a bunch of customer supplied stuff to do tomorrow..

[lee chitwood]

Try a flap sandpaper wheel (Home Depot), maybe 120 grit or finer. Drill press or hand held drill. Just keep the grain direction. I have used this method many times.