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Calvin thompson
10-30-2012, 12:15 AM
Hello this topic keeps coming up well talking to a few friends so has any one done any sort of digital camo pateren on anodized aluminum

thanks for all the help

Chris DeGerolamo
10-30-2012, 12:15 PM
yep, did my d cell mag lite...turned out well. I assume you're looking to do firearm components, maybe a lower?

Calvin thompson
10-30-2012, 7:22 PM
cool any pics and how did you do the file did you have "grays"
thanks

Chris DeGerolamo
10-31-2012, 9:09 AM
244454

244455

Here's how it turned out...CDR is attached. I do not remember my settings, though it's just AA anyway.

Calvin thompson
10-31-2012, 12:33 PM
how does your machien do grays?
thanks

Chris DeGerolamo
10-31-2012, 1:08 PM
Not sure about your Rabbit, but our Epilog has a 'stucki' option for raster engraving. Essentially I do not have to go through any extra steps in order to engrave the different tones.

Calvin thompson
10-31-2012, 10:26 PM
ok thanks that sounds cool! is there any rabbit or lasercut experts that can help out there in the creek. i am new but this may end up being very important
thank you

Chris Edens
11-01-2012, 1:33 AM
Thanks for this. I saw this video and they did not want to say how they did it. Now they did it on polymer magazines. Not sure how that was done. I am new to laser engraving.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6-nTH8p7cw

Dan Hintz
11-01-2012, 7:05 AM
Thanks for this. I saw this video and they did not want to say how they did it. Now they did it on polymer magazines. Not sure how that was done. I am new to laser engraving.

Same way the rest were done... in this case, the mag was painted a desert sand color first, then it was selectively lasered off. 100% is black, 0% is sand, and fills in between 0 and 100% are shades of sand.

Chris DeGerolamo
11-01-2012, 8:34 AM
Same way the rest were done... in this case, the mag was painted a desert sand color first, then it was selectively lasered off. 100% is black, 0% is sand, and fills in between 0 and 100% are shades of sand.

I'm not sure these are painted...I've seen this for a while now and I am fairly certain they bleach the color much like CO2 on AA. Their site shows other examples.

Dan Hintz
11-01-2012, 11:13 AM
I'm not aware of any (naturally) black plastic that bleaches to a sand color via laser... that leads me to believe it's either a black plastic painted sand and lasered, or a sand plastic painted black and lasered.

Chris DeGerolamo
11-01-2012, 11:44 AM
Those pmags are made of ABS. Their site show a Glock receiver engraved (also polymer), showing a lighter color but it does not appear painted. Not saying they are not painted, but we do a lot of firearms and I cannot duplicate those results with our CO2 and paint, not with how clean they look.

Chris Edens
11-01-2012, 11:46 AM
Well maybe some of us can figure it out. I would love to do this on my personal stuff but I know guys that would pay top dollar for this.

http://distilleryimage4.s3.amazonaws.com/f63123d60f4a11e2979622000a1fb04f_7.jpg

Chris Edens
11-01-2012, 11:53 AM
How are they able to mark polymer in white? Are they using a chemical on it similar to cermark but for plastic?

244520

Chris DeGerolamo
11-01-2012, 11:55 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCK0VAfrcdI

Anyone???

Matt Turner (physics)
11-01-2012, 12:04 PM
From rofin.com:

"Foaming, a partial degradation creating gas-bubbles with in the material, scatters the light and produces light marks. Additives can help improving absorption properties. Applicable laser sources are Nd: YAG-, Nd: Vanadate- or fiber lasers."

Joe Hillmann
11-01-2012, 12:42 PM
I have a Remington with a composite stock I have played around with it in the laser several times. In a co2 laser it engraves into the plastic leaving a black mark. With the yag the mark is anywhere from a light white to a almost golden color. Plastics in a yag do strange things the color is bleached out of them and often times the engraved area ends up slightly raised from the rest of the work piece.

Chris Edens
11-01-2012, 1:16 PM
So the Yag laser is the key to the white markings

Dan Hintz
11-01-2012, 1:23 PM
How are they able to mark polymer in white? Are they using a chemical on it similar to cermark but for plastic?

244520

Are we sure they aren't using a fiber for this?

EDIT: Looks like I was beaten to the punch...

matthew knott
11-01-2012, 1:59 PM
Ive been meaning to answer this all day but didnt get a chance, if you look at the video you can see a small stainless steel card, on it are lots off little squares in different colours, this has been created buy a fiber or yag laser, also its clearly a galvo machine (from their other videos)! I would say a fiber, we get that kind of affect on green ABS, you can get additives put in to the ABS that will make the engraving come out is a set colour for example orange engraving on black plastic. In a nut shell you need to spend $20k for a new machine and off you go!

Don Williams Michigan
11-03-2012, 9:15 AM
Chris,

Sent you a PM.

Chuck Stone
11-03-2012, 5:13 PM
why would anyone, EVER do a camo pattern on a gun?

You set it down somewhere.. you'll never find it again..

Mark E Wilson
11-03-2012, 10:05 PM
I think it's a liquid print. I see a lot of it around Ft Bragg.


http://www.liquidprintone.com/process.php

Chuck Stone
11-04-2012, 6:10 PM
I'd love to produce the films, but I haven't found any desktop rotogravure printers yet.. :p

Mike DeRegnaucourt
11-05-2012, 8:04 AM
I think it's a liquid print. I see a lot of it around Ft Bragg.


http://www.liquidprintone.com/process.php

I was thinking the same thing as Mark Wilson stated. I watched them do this process on an episode of American Chopper and the results were pretty amazing.

Scott Shepherd
11-05-2012, 8:05 AM
Except the video clip says it was laser engraved.

Doug Griffith
11-05-2012, 11:46 AM
I ran a test power/speed/frequency grid for a potential customer on polymer paint gun parts quite a while back. The engraving actually turned a dark tan color. I could not get it to engrave white. That's as far as it went because, to me, it was not acceptable.