Burs from deep engraving

[Marianne Rusche]

Hi,
does anyone have any quick ways to remove burs from edges of letters after deep engraving on metal? I’ve given up playing with the hatch and parameters. No matter what I have tried, it’s still rough around the letters or graphic. I have a micro motor hand tool and I use different radial discs to remove the burs. It’s a process and takes time. Anybody have any tips or tricks to removing burs quickly after metal engraving? I have a 30 w fiber laser engraver. Thanks in advance for any suggestion!
marianne

[Tony South]

I do a lot of engraving for the tool and die and mold making industry. i have ran into the same problem. you need to get some polishing stones, like a 600 grit would be great. all you do is spray some wd40 or some sort of lubricant and rub of the burr. it will also not scratch the basemetal. then blow off with compressed air and then you got rid of the bur, it is really quick also. this is what i use. hope this helps.

https://www.gesswein.com/p-3129-new-superstone-ceramic-stones.aspx?gclid=CjwKCAjw8e7mBRBsEiwAPVxxiEUiT9SI XQnRch2e9GyUBDLl6T9h1W9lOeZI1ftf3FScEXCNa-7B2hoC0ZEQAvD_BwE (https://www.gesswein.com/p-3129-new-superstone-ceramic-stones.aspx?gclid=CjwKCAjw8e7mBRBsEiwAPVxxiEUiT9SI XQnRch2e9GyUBDLl6T9h1W9lOeZI1ftf3FScEXCNa-7B2hoC0ZEQAvD_BwE)

[Kev Williams]

depends on what you're engraving... stainless or blued rifle barrels, polished stainless, most aluminum, powdercoated or painted stuff, ANYthing abrasive will scratch these items... you only get to touch with clean rag, maybe... ;)

You need to keep working on the hatch routines; try something like this:

hatch 1 10° angle .05 spacing .05 offset in RED 100% power 800 speed 35 frequency 1 loop
hatch 2 160° angle .04 spacing .02 offset in BLUE 80% power 1200 speed 45 frequency 1 loop
hatch 3 310° angle .025 spacing .007 offset in GREEN 50% power 1500 speed 50 frequency 3 loops
use the 'disconnected' hatch, NOT the connected hatch...do NOT 'follow edge once' on any of these hatches.

DO set the "mark contour" to mark AFTER engraving...

NOTE- marking the contour is done in BLACK, which is why I didn't use it in the hatches, it provides a needed 4th color :) ...
Set the black color for 3000 speed, 30% power and 60 frequency. THEN, hit 'advanced' and turn the WOBBLE on.
Set the wobble for .015 diameter and distance

The idea is this:
The RED hatch digs deep, but keeps away from the edges-
The BLUE hatch digs a bit less, and gets a little closer to the edges, AND cleans up the RED pass-
The GREEN hatch is faster and enough less power to about half the work of the RED pass, but DOES add depth, and cleans up the RED and BLUE passes...
The GREEN hatch is still not quite to the edge, but is close enough-- the BLACK mark-contour pass runs ON the edge, cutting a fast, low power .015mm wide circular swath, which in a perfect world will essentially polish the outlines and remove any edge burrs while doing it...

This is all just a starting point, your machine will need several tweaks... like, settings that worked on my ebay2 fiber didn't work on my ebay1 machine, as 1 is more aggressive due to the different lens. Just takes a few practice runs to get an idea of which passes to make work harder, etc...

And it may take 30, 40, 50 or more repeat passes to get some good depth. And it may seem too time consuming- but when you get that great result you're after and DON'T have to spend 2 or 3 minutes deburring, the extra engraving time becomes a non-issue. As does the time to deburr.. :)

[Marianne Rusche]

Kev and Tony,
thank you both!! I’ll try both ideas! I’d love for the laser to get rid of the burr and eliminate that step of deburring! I just haven’t been lucky yet finding the right parameters! I’ll keep trying!
My next issue, after deburring, is how to color fill. I have been using Vintaj Patina ink. It works and is fast and permanent. But, sometimes it’s hard to totally clean up the base metal. I use alcohol for the clean up. I just had someone recommend goo gone for the clean up. Anyone try this or have other ideas for color fill and clean up after?

Thanks,
Marianne

[Tony South]

depends on what you're engraving... stainless or blued rifle barrels, polished stainless, most aluminum, powdercoated or painted stuff, ANYthing abrasive will scratch these items... you only get to touch with clean rag, maybe... ;)

You need to keep working on the hatch routines; try something like this:

hatch 1 10° angle .05 spacing .05 offset in RED 100% power 800 speed 35 frequency 1 loop
hatch 2 160° angle .04 spacing .02 offset in BLUE 80% power 1200 speed 45 frequency 1 loop
hatch 3 310° angle .025 spacing .007 offset in GREEN 50% power 1500 speed 50 frequency 3 loops
use the 'disconnected' hatch, NOT the connected hatch...do NOT 'follow edge once' on any of these hatches.

DO set the "mark contour" to mark AFTER engraving...

NOTE- marking the contour is done in BLACK, which is why I didn't use it in the hatches, it provides a needed 4th color :) ...
Set the black color for 3000 speed, 30% power and 60 frequency. THEN, hit 'advanced' and turn the WOBBLE on.
Set the wobble for .015 diameter and distance

The idea is this:
The RED hatch digs deep, but keeps away from the edges-
The BLUE hatch digs a bit less, and gets a little closer to the edges, AND cleans up the RED pass-
The GREEN hatch is faster and enough less power to about half the work of the RED pass, but DOES add depth, and cleans up the RED and BLUE passes...
The GREEN hatch is still not quite to the edge, but is close enough-- the BLACK mark-contour pass runs ON the edge, cutting a fast, low power .015mm wide circular swath, which in a perfect world will essentially polish the outlines and remove any edge burrs while doing it...

This is all just a starting point, your machine will need several tweaks... like, settings that worked on my ebay2 fiber didn't work on my ebay1 machine, as 1 is more aggressive due to the different lens. Just takes a few practice runs to get an idea of which passes to make work harder, etc...

And it may take 30, 40, 50 or more repeat passes to get some good depth. And it may seem too time consuming- but when you get that great result you're after and DON'T have to spend 2 or 3 minutes deburring, the extra engraving time becomes a non-issue. As does the time to deburr.. :)


I agree with you but I am not touching the base metal probably because im working with some hardened tool steel like s-7 and h-13. after de burring I look under the microscope and there are no scratches. but getting your settings right is the main goal and is the right way to do it.