cermark help

[Mark Plotkin]

:confused: I am having problems with stainless steel and cermark coating. I am turning to you all to see what I am doing wrong. I have mixed the cermark with denatured alcohol at the 2 to 1 ratio. I am using a epilog 45w mini. I have tried many settings with mostly the same result, the marking is not staying on, it tends to rub off. Today I ran at 400dpi, 20s and 100p. Any suggestions from the experts?

thanks in advance for your responses!

Mark Plotkin:(

[Brent Brod]

I had a similar experience on my 75 watt Epilog. It looked great until I rubbed on it :( I had to really turn up the power to get the image to stick. After I turned the power way up, I had to lower the speed. When it finally stuck, the image had lost quite a bit of detail.

I bought an airbrush hoping the uniformity of the coating would help, but I haven't had a chance to test that.

[George M. Perzel]

Hi;
Check whether your stainless has a surface coating-many commercial staionless items have a lacquer or poly coating which prevents the cermark from adhering. Rub a spot with some lacquer thinner -it will soften and dissolve the coating if present. Also search this site for previous threads regarding this subject. Good Luck
George

[Bruce Volden]

Also, don't be afraid to thin the mixture even more! My preference is to a consistency of water, applied with a foam brush. Power setting 80, speed 12,dpi=400 resulting in absolutely no problems, fine detailing, no rub-off!! This is with my Epilog 35W. I only regret making a mistake as this stuff has to be "ground" off to remove. Bruce

[Keith Outten]

I have had mixed experiences with stainless steel and Cermark. I can say that every time I bead blasted the stainless steel before engraving it was perfect. It seems that the material must be perfectly clean to obtain the proper results as George has indicated. I have not had the best results using solvents, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

[Brent Brod]

I was trying to laser onto steel plates from Laserbits, so it seems like it should be ready to go (I did discover that one attempt had a problem because I didn't peel off the plastic protector :o). However, subsequent attempts should have worked. I'm going to try the airbrush technique and see if a more uniform coating helps.

[Mark Plotkin]

Thanks for your quick responses. I also emailed laserbits and they got right back to me. I am going to clean the parts with laquer thinner, and then lower the speed to 10 to 15, with power at 100. They also recommended going to 600dpi from the 400 I was using. I have been using an air brush and it does seem to go on well. I will keep the thread updated on my progress, again thanks for all your help.


MP

[Ian Malings]

i just got my first spray can from cermark today.
grabbed a scrap pc of satin #4 stainless, sprayed it quick, let it dry, and it came out great.
much more convenient and cleaner than using the powder and mixing.
i was pleasantly surpised

the only thing is you really got to shake that can good to get the stuff thoroughly mixed together before spraying.

[Mark Plotkin]

Thanks everyone for your help,

I cleaned the stainless steel multi tools with Lacquer thinner, sprayed the Cermark with an airbrush (harbor frieght $5.00) then ran the job on my epilog mini 45w at 10s, 100p, 600dpi. The samples came out great and there was no rub off at all!

Again thank you all for taking the time to respond it is appreciated!

Mark;) ;) ;)