PDA

View Full Version : cermark



Don Necaise
12-17-2007, 10:37 AM
Wjen using cermark after i engrave and the clen the piece you can see the shadow where the cermark was sprayed . Does anyone else ever see that or am I doing something wrong?

David Lavaneri
12-17-2007, 2:04 PM
Don,

What type of metal are you marking? Some metals, such as brass, depending on their heat conductivity, can show anomalies like that.

In most cases, it's a matter of speed/power settings.

It's also possible to use metal cleaners to remove a "halo".

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri

Eric Allen
12-18-2007, 2:06 AM
Is it plated material by chance?

Don Necaise
12-18-2007, 6:53 AM
YEs it is plated material.. It is a wedding cke knife and server set

Eric Allen
12-18-2007, 12:40 PM
David gave pretty good advice for that. Platings, in my opinion, can be some of the trickiest material. They likely conduct heat differently from the base material. If you can't get it with a regular metal cleaner or denatured alcohol, you might try a motorcycle shop for the cleaner they use to get bluing off of motorcycle pipes near the engine. Probably have to wash the heck outta the part to make sure there's no residue. I'm assuming you mean in the heat affected area, correct?

Don Necaise
12-18-2007, 3:26 PM
The entire area that had cermark on it is shadowed. I guess it was 1.5 inches x3 inches area and i engraved in the center of that, So Yes it would have been the affected area.

Sean Weir
12-18-2007, 4:39 PM
Hello Don,

I just answered a similar question concerning staining on brass on Engraving Etc., so I'll paraphrase from there....

If the whole tag is discolored in the area where the CerMark was applied it could be the wet CerMark reacting with the metal. You can sometimes see this happen with very low grades of stainless steel and on brass too. The CerMark can actually start bonding a little to the metal while it is wet, causing a stain.

You can sometimes prevent this from happening by spraying the CerMark on very "dry", holding your spray can or airbrush further away from the tag. This allows the CerMark to dry a little along its way to the tag and the time it spends in contact with the brass while wet is shorter. It also helps to speed up the dry time by using fan, blow dryer or heat gun. Some people have even had good results warming the parts up first so that when the CerMark hits them they dry really fast.

You may also be able to remove the stain using a commercial non-abrasive metal cleaner. There is a product called “Met-All” that may help. It is a non-abrasive cleaner available at most large hardware stores. It should not touch the CerMark, but if you use an abrasive cleaner it could take some of the mark off. The mark is only as tough as the metal underneath and if the abrasive can remove the base metal it can damage the mark too.

Hopefully this helps, if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Sean