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Joe Pelonio
08-29-2006, 3:46 PM
Anyone try Cermark on solid gold yet? I have a guy that's supposed to bring in a couple of pieces later this week, and I told him I had never tried it but he's willing to be the guinea pig. Ferro says it's EXPECTED to work.

Frank Corker
08-29-2006, 5:42 PM
Jeez Joe, only last week I had a gold credit card but the bank collected it, I should have given it a go for you. I'll watch and see how your experience goes instead

mike klein
08-29-2006, 8:02 PM
Joe,

I use it all the time on 24k polished gold plated items and it works great.

http://www.precngraving.com/images/polished_pet_tags/polished2_lrg.jpg




Mike

Richard Rumancik
08-29-2006, 11:38 PM
I was at a trade show a few years ago - there was a company selling equipment to do gold brush plating. So a fellow took a steel spoon that was gold plated from the brush plating exhibitor over to the Ferro booth to test Cermark on gold. It seemed to work fine. However the gold plating was probably only microinches thick. Perhaps there are too many variables for Ferro to say absolutely that it will work. I have never tried it myself.

But it would seem it is worth a try. One precaution I take with all Cermark applications - don't leave the Cermark on the metal any longer than necessary - i.e. don't coat one day and laser the next. Also wash it off asap after lasering. I had a problem with the residual Cermark leaving a "stain" on some stainless awards when I left it on overnight. Don't know if anybody else has seen this but now I tend to err on the cautious side and wash shortly after lasering.

Rodne Gold
08-30-2006, 12:49 AM
Richard , if you airbrush the marking paste on the item , the staining problem seems to dissapear , we had the problem with brush application but a paasche airbrush using a gravity feed and a no 5 orifice spraying diluted paste cured it.
We now use a local product that is reuseable - IE we spray on , laser and brush off the residue into a tub and reuse the residue.
We made a pex booth for both spraying (reuse the overspray) and one for brushing off.

Mike Hood
08-30-2006, 12:56 AM
Any leads on the local product?

Cost about the same?

Rodne Gold
08-30-2006, 3:23 AM
200 grams of it costs us $100
IE about $500 a kilo or round $230 a lb , $14 per oz
Its water based and works real well. Also claimed not to be toxic and no transport problems??
As I said , its reuseable and a thus a little goes a real long way.

We dont really do a lot of metal marking as its a bit cuthroat here and there are a lot of folk with YAG lasers that do work at rediculous prices , like 20-30c for a 2" x 1" marking and there is no margin in it. The average price here is round $1 an item for those that use Co2 lasers on qtys of 50-100 , not at all worth it even at that price.
Regards

Dave Jones
08-30-2006, 8:23 PM
In this country (USA) TherMark is water based while Cermark is solvent based. They're owned (now) by the same company (Ferro) but are different formulations. I think I also remember reading that the Thermark dried to a powder and could be damaged or brushed off accidentally, so it's suggested not to pre-coat and stack parts with it. The Cermark is stronger when dry, but the leftover can't be recycled since it gets lumpy when you try that. The leftover Thermark can be simply mixed with water and used again.

Joe Pelonio
09-04-2006, 6:18 PM
This turned out to be 14k solid gold. it worked fine. My camera cannot get a good pic of it, in fact I need my reading glasses on to see it myself. These are doll bracelets, and measure just 3/16" x 3/8" with a hole in each end, and a curve from left to right. I engraved both sides of each. This says "Doc" in case you can't read it.

Jeff Chumbley
09-04-2006, 10:51 PM
looks good Joe,

You might try the macro function and a tripod to get a good picture. I'm sure that will be an asset to your promotional arsenal


Jeff