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James Higgon
03-28-2012, 3:01 PM
ive done a little reading and am i right in thinking that this isnt possible? thought id ask before i go and buy loads of silver anodised pieces :)

Gary Hair
03-28-2012, 3:21 PM
It is possible but there usually isn't much contrast. Sometimes it will laser almost white and looks fine, other times you can barely see it.

Gary

Michael Hunter
03-28-2012, 3:28 PM
You may be able to re-colour the engraved bits.

Don't use too much power! You just want to burn out any dye and open the pores in the surface.
(If you see any raw aluminium then you have overdone it by a lot).

Colour with alcohol based dyes (or "permanent" felt-tip pens), wash off the excess after a minute or two.
Dunk the piece in boiling water for 5 minutes. This closes up the pores in the surface and makes the colouring permanent.

This process works well on black or dark coloured anodising.
Depending on the quality of the original anodising, doing it on "silver" may cause problems if the dye soaks in where it isn't wanted.
Worth a go though!

Dee Gallo
03-28-2012, 3:34 PM
I have done them and was surprised that they showed up just fine. The one on the bottom right in this pic is silver. This shows several of the available colors.

cheers, dee

Mike Null
03-28-2012, 4:23 PM
I have done a number of silver/aluminum colored anodized aluminum pieces. The engraving is white as previously mentioned but perfectly visible.

Tony Lenkic
03-28-2012, 7:38 PM
If you can use 0.025 aluminum you can buy Horizons AlumaMrak or JDS LaserBlack aluminum.
Another option is CerMark for aluminum.

Tim Bateson
03-28-2012, 10:36 PM
I use to shy away at too, but have had great results. Here is a silver business card.... The customer has just issued his 3rd order for more.
228233

James Higgon
03-29-2012, 5:05 AM
I use to shy away at too, but have had great results. Here is a silver business card.... The customer has just issued his 3rd order for more.
228233

They come out great. Ill order a couple of pieces then to have a go with when my laser gets delivered.
I have seen some people who have got a yellow engraving on anodised. Is this from using too much power?

Dan Hintz
03-29-2012, 6:23 AM
I have seen some people who have got a yellow engraving on anodised. Is this from using too much power?
It's from using anodized products where the anodizing was complete ... too much power will simply blow the anodizing away down to bare aluminum.

James Higgon
03-29-2012, 8:45 AM
It's from using anodized products where the anodizing was complete ... too much power will simply blow the anodizing away down to bare aluminum.

Ah right. I am using the same anodised that the person whose came our yellow did. why cant I turn up the power and take it back to bare aluminium?

Steven Cox
03-29-2012, 9:12 AM
If you go down to bare aliminium then you run the risk of the bare aluminium oxidising if it comes in contact with moisture. You only want enough power to take off the colour down to the white coat. Also if the blanks are from Chewbarker??? We've found that they have about 3 shades of sliver from light to dark so I'd suggest ordering the darkest silver if possible.

Dan Hintz
03-29-2012, 10:57 AM
Ah right. I am using the same anodised that the person whose came our yellow did. why cant I turn up the power and take it back to bare aluminium?
If the anodizer isn't carefully controlling their batches, one batch can easily be junk and the next pristine. Most of the less-than-desireable anodizing I've seen is a dull putty color, some shifting a bit towards the yellow end of the spectrum... useable, but nowhere near the quality of a good white.

If you go down to bare aliminium then you run the risk of the bare aluminium oxidising if it comes in contact with moisture.
Aluminum oxidizes in the open air almost instantly, so you can be guaranteed it will oxidize. The advantage to aluminum over something like steel is once the oxide layer forms it won't continue... it's self-sealing. With steel, you get rust, but it's not self-sealing, so it will continue to rust until there's no more base metal left.

Mike Null
03-29-2012, 11:07 AM
I do a lot of marking on anodized and the coatings vary widely--even with the same processor. I had one customer switch from anodized to powder coat because their anodizer couldn't give them a consistent product.

Tim Bateson
03-29-2012, 8:02 PM
... You only want enough power to take off the colour down to the white coat...

Actually I don't believe there is a "white" coat. The idea is to use just enough power to bleach the color out, but not enough power to laser through it.

Steven Cox
03-29-2012, 9:38 PM
Actually I don't believe there is a "white" coat. The idea is to use just enough power to bleach the color out, but not enough power to laser through it.

Without getting too technical the "White Coat" is a build-up of aluminium oxide in the anodizing process. After that comes the Dye which gives the colour and in most cases the last process is a clear seal for added protection. You could be right in saying the power is used to bleach the dye colour, but too much power will remove the oxide layer (which appears to be white).