I did it and now need to learn to engrave

[Roy Sanders]

I fixed my limit switch on my Nice-Cut Laser Engraver desktop 40W, I posted it under a different thread, it is circuit board optic. I hadn't soldered circuitry for 40 years, and I didn't have parkinson's then. Then I reinstalled it and aligned it and it works. The gantry goes home and stops correctly.
Yay for me.

NOW the hard part. I ran the engraving project i built in CorelDRAW x6. it is a black and white JayHawk then a name. it fits an ink pen barrel :confused: the graphic was not clear and the lettering was murky. I used a "handwriting" font.

Does anyone care to mentor me on the best font type to use for engraving 314677 This is about 25 mm long and 9 mm tall. so the graphic and type font is small. I grateful for any help.

Thank you

Roy

[John Noell]

Your laser should do a nice job engraving the wooden part but it won't work (well) on the metal part. FWIW, especially when engraving a pen or other sort of valuable item, I like to first test the engraving on a piece of scrap wood. If you are exporting from CorelDraw as a jpg, most fonts will do.

[Bert Kemp]

I can't see anything in that picture. If your trying to engrave metal its not gonna happen you need to get on the wood. You could use cermark on the metal but you can't do both . wood or metal( with cermark) . Like John said most any font will engrave on the wood portion. I use wood dowel pin about the same size as the pens to test before doing the pen.

[Keith Colson]

If you want to get tricky you can engrave brass this way. Dip coat the part in beeswax. Laser engrave it to remove the wax where you want the etch. Then etch it in ferric chloride or ammonia per-sulfate. I don't know if you can be bothered with all the fuss but it is an option.

Cheers
Keith

[Roy Sanders]

Hello and thank you. I did use scrap copper spayed with theramark.

Bert, I noticed the Marine logo. One of the reasons I bought the machine is to engrave .50 Machine Gun casings with military logo and Unit insignia, names and date etc.

My son is a Iraqi/Afghanistan Vet from the 3/75 Ranger Batt. B Co 2001 - 2007. He and I wish to use Purple Heart wood as part of the bullet tip and give to Combat Vets. We are vetting the claim to make certain posers don't get the gift.

Since receiving it I have yet to actually do a project, with two down time events. I also had orders from physicians wanting resident graduate gifts.

Keith thank you for that tip. I have beeswax. I will attempt that trick versus theramark and see which works best.

John, I hadn't thought about exporting the project. I have LaserDraw that pulls it over from CorelDraw x6. I will attempt the jpg.

Thanks

Roy

[Bert Kemp]

Roy Thank your son for his service and good luck with the brass engraving or I should say marking. If I can help just holler

[Kev Williams]

I have 3 lasers, and a dozen or so .50 cal. shells upstairs that I diamond etched with my IS400. I just can't get reliable results on brass with Cermark.
At least not the basic LMM6000 stuff.

Good luck!