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daniel hernandez
10-11-2016, 11:55 PM
Hello,

I am using my rotary attachment to laser a RTIC 30oz mug, using Ceramark LMM6000.

I keep getting parts of the logo that show laser lines.

Can someone tell me is this due to not using enough Ceramark spray, or does this sound more like the rotary attachment? ...my file looks ok.

Thanks,
Dan

Ian Stewart-Koster
10-12-2016, 5:59 AM
what kind of laser?
It might relate to how much rotation there is per mm of Y axis...

Mike Null
10-12-2016, 8:03 AM
We can advise you better if you post a picture. What kind of machine do you have?

daniel hernandez
10-12-2016, 10:14 PM
I am using a QX-60-9060 Laser Engraving/Cutting Machine.

Keith Downing
10-12-2016, 11:58 PM
I see very minimal (if any) "laser lines" engraving RTIC's with Cermark. And I've done a few hundred of that brand in the last month with a couple different designs.

Also, I would say it takes VERY LITTLE Cermark to get a pretty solid black with proper laser setup; as long as the entire surface you're lasering is coated. In fact, a couple times I misaligned and ran over the edge to the overspray and it still marked perfectly dark.

My suggestions for you to try in no particular order:

-- Make sure the design is high enough quality, and that you are engraving with a small enough interval (scan gap) that you aren't getting any noticeable gap between passes. Focus correctly as well.

-- Make sure the rotary is working properly and you have the correct settings in your laser software for the rotary you are using. You may need to test another design to confirm this if you aren't sure.

-- Make sure you have plenty of air flow and are going fast enough heat isn't building up on the surface. Usually you'll start to see a slight warp of you're building up too much heat; but even with minimal warping it has created some strange lines in some of my pieces (it took me awhile to figure out what was going on, and looked like banding across certain sections).

-- Make sure the cermark is completely dry before you start. This can take anywhere from 5 or 10 minutes, all the way up to an hour depending on how thick you put it on, and how humid it is where you are working. I did a couple ever so slightly wet and again got some strange patterns in the final result.

Hope that helps!

daniel hernandez
10-15-2016, 7:02 PM
Keith, first of all...let me say Thank You! for taking the time to write such a detailed response.

I'm happy to say, that with your input/knowledge, I am lasering RTIC mugs without the lines...and they look great!

Although I followed all your tips, I believe it was your tip regarding my Art Work that needed to be changed up a bit, that finally got me the results I was looking for.

I do have two more questions...

1. Do you have "Air Blowing" when Lasering these Stainless Steel Cups?

2. My second question is, how much would you charge for a 30oz RTIC Mug, with a logo that takes 5 minutes to complete on the laser? They will be returning customers probably purchasing about 100 a year...if that matters.

...think I will post that second question as new thread.

Thank you once again!!!
Dan

Keith Downing
10-16-2016, 6:04 AM
Keith, first of all...let me say Thank You! for taking the time to write such a detailed response.

I'm happy to say, that with your input/knowledge, I am lasering RTIC mugs without the lines...and they look great!

Although I followed all your tips, I believe it was your tip regarding my Art Work that needed to be changed up a bit, that finally got me the results I was looking for.

I do have two more questions...

1. Do you have "Air Blowing" when Lasering these Stainless Steel Cups?

2. My second question is, how much would you charge for a 30oz RTIC Mug, with a logo that takes 5 minutes to complete on the laser? They will be returning customers probably purchasing about 100 a year...if that matters.

...think I will post that second question as new thread.

Thank you once again!!!
Dan

Glad you got it working smoothly man!

As for your questions:

1. Yes, I do use air assist at 20 to 30 psi while running the RTIC cups. All lasers and designs are different; and I do believe you could probably run some lasers fast enough that air assist wouldn't be a factor. But, the reason I use it is to help diffuse heat build up.

I have one design I did a lot of, and it has a section in the middle that is almost solid black for several square inches. I noticed as I did several cups that intermitantly I would see some strange banding/change of color across the thickest parts of the design on a lot of them. I also noticed that after I would finish the work the cup would be noticeably hot to the touch. The only thing I could think of was that the heat was building up to a point where the chemical reaction was not consistent across the whole design surface. So I pumped up the air based on that hunch and the problem vanished. Haven't had it re-occur on any designs since. I'm pretty convinced the heat buildup was the culprit. So take that for what you will.

2. I generally charge $6-$10 per cup, depending on a couple factors. Mostly: how many they are willing to order at once, how many square inches is the design, and also if the design is ready to go when I receive it or if I have to do any art processing for them before I start. I know some others that charge more (good for them!), but I'm not really intersted in orders smaller than 6-12 cups and I'm happy with that profit margin and the repeat business it has generated.

Oh, and one thing I'll also throw out there. Don't forget to account for the time it takes to clean the cups and rebox them after you have finished the work. I definitely didn't account for that my first time, and it probably adds 3-5 minutes of extra work per cup if your customer is expecting to receive a product that is ready to sell/distribute directly from you.

Mike Null
10-17-2016, 11:31 AM
And remember to ask if individual names go on the cups and if there is one location or two to be engraved. That should be reflected in your pricing.

daniel hernandez
10-21-2016, 1:12 AM
Copy that...thanks Mike.

Dan Laser
11-15-2017, 7:38 AM
Need a little help out there, I have been laser etching a number of powder coated cups from Ozark and RTIC, the Ozark cups seem to laser nice without having to adjust power and speed, I'm using a 60 watt laser set at 90 power and 70 speed. The RTIC cups, on the other hand, seem to have a thicker coating and the red ones seem to be the most difficult and have to pump up the power to 100% and speed at 55. I'm ok with this adjustment but my problem comes with cleaning the residue off as the Goo Gone doesn't seem to get it clean, am I burning the residue back into the stainless? The other issue I am having is I lasered a blue RTIC, cleaned the residue with Turtle Wax label and sticker remover which works great but my customer washed his cup by hand with Dawn dishwashing detergent and the cup turned baby blue from royal blue wherever I sprayed the chemical.
Any help would be appreciated, Thanks!

Gary Hair
11-15-2017, 8:37 AM
Different colors, different brands, different methods of applying the powdercoat, all affect the settings necessary to get a good clean mark. A few colors of Yeti need to be ran twice, some you can get away with one pass. I clean them all with denatured alcohol, it removes any residue quickly and easily. If you need something stronger than dna then you really need to work on speed/power settings. I have heard of people using brake fluid, nail polish remover, you name it, and it really boils down to getting the settings and number of passes down right and you can avoid most of the extraneous steps that people take to do cleanup.

Dan Laser
11-15-2017, 9:06 AM
Thanks for your quick response Gary!
After you laser your powder coated cups, do you end up with the stainless showing or do you see a lot of residue that covers the stainless shine up?
In general, where are up ending up with a good setting on average?

Tim Bateson
11-15-2017, 10:47 AM
Utilizing a Chuck Rotary has made multiple passes a much more assure option than when I utilized the Gravity Wheels. As stated, some of these powder coating are so thick, I've done as many as 5 passes. That is rare, but very doable with the Chuck rotary.

Dan Laser
11-15-2017, 11:29 AM
Thanks Tim, is it possible that I am applying too much power and actually harding the powder to the cup thus not allowing easy cleanup. When you finally have the cup looking like you want is it stainless steel looking prior to cleaning
or another color such as almost black on a red cup?

Neville Stewart
11-15-2017, 12:54 PM
As for the new Rtic cups, blue anyway. The coating is about 4 times as thick as before, not Thermoset and imposssible to clean without a solvent, so much so I wouldn't do them again.

Dan Laser
11-15-2017, 2:01 PM
Yes I'm finding that with red as well, I thought I had the cleaning solvent figured out with the Turtle wax label remover but found out later that when washed with a mild detergent after use it turned the cup baby blue.
Thanks for your input,
Frustrated!

Mike Null
11-15-2017, 3:54 PM
I can usually run powder coated cups in one pass but not the RTIC green. The paint is so thick it's going to take two or three passes.

I have not run into that with Yeti's.

I do believe you can run your laser too hot on powder coated stuff.

Dan Laser
11-15-2017, 5:07 PM
Thanks Mike, I am starting to dial it in and have found acetone does clean the residue off. Has anyone raised the flag with RTIC as to not put as much Mil thickness on and they would even save money in less powder!

Karissa Davis
11-20-2017, 10:32 PM
We use RTIC on a regular basis. Running a 50 Watt universal laser, we run the settings at 86 power/ 45 speed / 600 dpi. It will leave a slight coating on the cup. Wet the cup and spray with Awesome (I have only found this at dollar stores) and wipe with a Mr. Clean magic eraser. Make sure to use the regular eraser and not the heavy duty. This has worked with both the old design RTIC and the new ones. The coating is thicker, but it still works the same.

Dan Laser
11-21-2017, 6:09 AM
Karissa, does your settings work for all the RTIC colors, some seem to have a thicker coating than others?

Mike Null
11-21-2017, 6:22 AM
I'm doing an order of RTIC green cups right now and the paint thickness varies by 4 to 5 thousandths. I am now running three passes to get them sufficiently clean to be acceptable--and that's with cleaner and magic Eraser.

In the future, I will charge a premium for RTIC colors. I just received an order for red Yetis and they didn't even remove the red residue from their lasered logo mark.

Karissa Davis
11-21-2017, 1:20 PM
Karissa, does your settings work for all the RTIC colors, some seem to have a thicker coating than others?

It has worked for all of the colors so far. I have done all but one or two of the new colors in tumblers as well as some of the new tall water bottles. I found the key is to have water on the tumbler and then spray the Awesome on it. Once it sits for a couple of seconds you can see the color changing. Many times it comes off on its own and the magic eraser is just a guarantee.

Dan Laser
11-21-2017, 5:46 PM
Thanks for the info Karissa, Ill give it a try!

Karissa Davis
11-26-2017, 12:54 PM
So a quick update. Picked up the Dark Blue 20oz from RTIC this week. This has been the thickest batch that i have gotten. Ended up having to do multiple passes to get it off. I have been doing the dark blue 30 oz for the past couple of weeks with no problem.

Mike Null
11-26-2017, 3:10 PM
I've had it with the green RTICs. I will refuse them as it takes too many passes.

Dan Laser
11-26-2017, 7:58 PM
Haven't tried the green yet, but I have had good success with the dark blue with a setting of 55% speed and 100 power on my 60 watt laser. They are cleaning off good with denatured alcohol.

Tim Bateson
11-27-2017, 1:14 PM
Thanks Tim, is it possible that I am applying too much power and actually harding the powder to the cup thus not allowing easy cleanup. When you finally have the cup looking like you want is it stainless steel looking prior to cleaning
or another color such as almost black on a red cup?

I highly doubt that. Most powder coated cups will take me two passes. One - to laser away 98% of the powder. Two - to cleanup the slight color hue in the engraving. Then rinse to remove powder dust. Result is almost always shiny SS. If needed I'll use a magic eraser while rinsing. I haven't found slower/more power to have any effect one way or another. However, too little power just won't remove enough. Some mugs are fantastic after a single pass, others as many as 3 or 4 passes - I hate those.

Another thing not mentioned much is you don't always need to blast away all of the color to the bare SS. By using varying degrees of gray scale you can produce some nice effects/color shifts/tones.

Doug Fisher
11-27-2017, 5:51 PM
>>Another thing not mentioned much is you don't always need to blast away all of the color to the bare SS. By using varying degrees of gray scale you can produce some nice effects/color shifts/tones.<<

That is an interesting trick, Tim. Do you have any pictures of the results that you can post, please?

Thanks.

Dan Laser
11-27-2017, 6:17 PM
Thanks for the info!

Tim Bateson
11-28-2017, 10:42 AM
>>That is an interesting trick, Tim. Do you have any pictures of the results that you can post, please?.

This isn't a great example due to the over thickness of this powder-coating, but you get the idea. This one used 4 different gray levels.

372386

Doug Fisher
11-29-2017, 3:43 PM
Thanks for posting the picture, Tim.

mitch stephens
12-02-2017, 9:08 AM
This isn't a great example due to the over thickness of this powder-coating, but you get the idea. This one used 4 different gray levels.

372386
Any ideas on how to get this logo to look right on a powder coated cup with the 2 colors overlapping https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uHlv3-uSSefJNVw7BOWOyyPUxiGEJHzvIMO4cYyTEcOg37WvlfJmr5_O 931-s83QVkiy4Uo=s170 just he green S with the white sperry. I have a few customers that want powder coated cups but the logos overlap
Thanks in advance

Scott Shepherd
12-02-2017, 10:15 AM
Make the SPERRY solid black, then make the S about 40% black and make it halftone the S.

mitch stephens
12-02-2017, 10:48 AM
Make the SPERRY solid black, then make the S about 40% black and make it halftone the S.

These will be done on a teal green powder coated cups so the stainless is all that will show up

Scott Shepherd
12-02-2017, 1:40 PM
These will be done on a teal green powder coated cups so the stainless is all that will show up

I assumed they were on colored cups. The method I posted is how I'd start. You might adjust it to 50 or 60% black if you find it looks better, but I'd probably stay down low to leave more of the cup color.

mitch stephens
12-03-2017, 8:49 AM
I assumed they were on colored cups. The method I posted is how I'd start. You might adjust it to 50 or 60% black if you find it looks better, but I'd probably stay down low to leave more of the cup color.

I am still learning this an still do not know how to achieve what you are talking about. When the powder coat burns off their is only stainless shown underneath.
Thanks

Scott Shepherd
12-03-2017, 9:59 AM
I am still learning this an still do not know how to achieve what you are talking about. When the powder coat burns off their is only stainless shown underneath.
Thanks

See the dot pattern that is around Tim's eagle? That's halftoning. It's not solid black. When you have something solid black, the machine spaces the dots close enough together to remove the powder coating. When you halftone it (by making it gray on some laser drivers, or by manually halftoning it in CorelDraw), then it spaces the dots far enough apart that it doesn't remove all the powdercoating, giving you a different look to your eyes. Look at Tim's photo of the Eagle, you'll see it. That's probably too light for you, but if you make the dots closer together than you'd have that. The other option is to put a white outline on the SPERRY text and have that white line not engrave, splitting the two different objects visually.

mitch stephens
12-04-2017, 7:06 PM
Thanks I will try an figure out how to do that