Ammo Cans - Engraving Issues

[Jennifer Brill]

Just bought a Trotec laser 120 watt. When we engrave the ammo cans the residue stains the freshly engraved area. Our settings were Power 40/Speed 80. Any tips or tricks to fix this problem? We are new to laser engraving so any help is much appreciated. I attached a pic to show what I'm talking about. Thank you!

[Bill George]

Just bought a Trotec laser 120 watt. When we engrave the ammo cans the residue stains the freshly engraved area. Our settings were Power 40/Speed 80. Any tips or tricks to fix this problem? We are new to laser engraving so any help is much appreciated. I attached a pic to show what I'm talking about. Thank you!

Cover with blue or whatever color masking tape and laser thru, it should help.

[Jerome Stanek]

Cover with blue or whatever color masking tape and laser thru, it should help.

I don't think that will help as it is the area that is already engraved and the tape would be gone.

[Doug Fisher]

Search here for tips on cleaning up stainless steel tumblers. I am guessing the same methods will clean up your engraving.

[AJ Chabot]

try some warm water and a red scotch brite. gently go over the engraved area.

What Bill is saying (I think) is that lasering through the tape will help get a cleaner engraving.

I've done a few ammo cans and when they look like that, just just wash them.

[Bill George]

try some warm water and a red scotch brite. gently go over the engraved area.

What Bill is saying (I think) is that lasering through the tape will help get a cleaner engraving.

I've done a few ammo cans and when they look like that, just just wash them.
Bingo it saves cleaning up. Any type of abrasive cleaner and you will mar the paint, its not stainless.

[Jennifer Brill]

Thanks so much! I will try the masking tape and cleaning and see how it works. Appreciate the tips!

[Gary Hair]

With all that power I would suggest two passes at lower power. The first one to do the bulk of the removal and the second one to clean up. I think you'll find very little left on the engraved area after the second pass. You could use denatured alcohol after that to clean up the painted area surrounding the engraved part.


Just bought a Trotec laser 120 watt. When we engrave the ammo cans the residue stains the freshly engraved area. Our settings were Power 40/Speed 80. Any tips or tricks to fix this problem? We are new to laser engraving so any help is much appreciated. I attached a pic to show what I'm talking about. Thank you!

[Glen Monaghan]

Most lasers exhaust to the back and have default setting to engrave from back to front, so residues/smoke from current engraving gets swept back over previously engraved areas and can contaminate them like this. I frequently use Epilog's option to engrave from front to back to minimize/eliminate this sort of problem that is common with painted metal as well as engraving smoky woods. Trotec likely has a similar front-to-back option.

[Jerome Stanek]

won't water rust the newly engraved area. I would try something like WD40

[Mike Null]

I would try Gary's method of two passes first.

[Kev Williams]

I don't know how ammo cans are prepped before painting, but if they're treated with phosphoric acid prior to painting, and it's quite likely they are, the steel under the paint will be almost black. Will a C02 laser remove the black color from steel? I don't know, never tried, BUT the black color is due to the iron oxide provided by the acid-- and since C02's are particularly good at removing color from ALUMINUM oxide, just to guess I'd say they'll also remove the color from iron oxide-

--this is all conjecture based on what I see in the pic, as the 'residue' appears to me to MAYBE be remnants of iron oxide the laser didn't get off in the first pass...

I guess one way to tell, would be to rub the center of that star with anything that would emulsify paint, such as xylene or acetone- if 10 seconds of either of those chemicals doesn't touch that residue, then odds are high it's iron oxide residue and not paint residue...

[Jennifer Brill]

We just tried the front to back setting and did two passes and the result is so much better. It looks very good! Thanks for the tip :)

[Jennifer Brill]

Thanks Gary! Two passes worked perfectly. That seemed to do the trick and then we used a magic eraser to get the little bit that's left off and it looks great. Appreciate all the help!

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Buy the generic erasers on amazon...melamine sponge I think...works great for tumblers, cans, two-tone plastics and more.

[John Lifer]

I've done 25-30 of them from at least three different companies. Chinese to US made. All engrave about the same, you DO need to have surface level. If I'm out of focus on a section, it will usually darken. Too much power probably. Two passes cleans best. But Be Very Careful cleaning these. They use PAINT, not Powder coating like cups. You WILL scratch and remove adjacent paint with anything other than soft wipe with magic eraser. I usually hit with Simple green and lightly wipe off, then rinse and dry. Don't use DNA, it will cut paint.