Cermark on Chrome Ipod Touch

[Duane Parcells]

Once and a while you get "very good" consistant results with Cermark.
Maybe this can bring in a few bucks for some.

2nd Gen Ipod Touch. Chrome Back
Cermark LMM6000 Spray

Clean the back with Denatured alcohol and do not touch after it is clean. (important) Spray with Cermark. Make sure the spray and your item are over 70 degrees. Use the lightest coat you can but get full coverage. More is not better in this case. Lasers fine when colder but results are far superior when the temp at application was warm.
Settings. Most of the settings I saw with Cermark were full power with the speed being adjusted to the power of your laser. I could never get that to work with any consistancy. With a 75 watt laser I use 30Power 40Speed and 1200 dpi. A 45 watt and 35 watt would be 30Power and 20Speed and 1200 dpi. Usually it doesn't serve any purpose to print a 300 dpi graphic at 1200 dpi but with Cermark it made a huge difference in the quality of the mark. Hope some of this can help. There are a ton of new iPod's out there. No, I don't know if would void the warranty. Next experimental volunteers will be with greyscale photo's.

[Thad Nickoley]

Nice work thank you for he info. I will look forward to the photo.

[Phil Garcia]

Duane, thanks for info. I have not had much success with the IPod's I had tried to engrave but I was way off on my settings and as well with the temperature, I had no idea this was so important. So, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[Tim Bateson]

Thanks Duane, I had never considered the temperature. Now to find someone's i-pod to experiment on ....

BTW - Those new to Cermark - It's VERY durable!! Messed up a stainless steel Thermos cup. Tried sanding and the Thermos Logo came off in 2 seconds. The Cermark however took nearly 1/2 hour of sanding and there was still a faint shadow.

[Angus Hines]

This was 60 wattz in just B&W mode. 35 Speed 45 Power 1000 DPI 1524 PPI. On a stainless steel cup holder.

Sorry the pic sucks glare I cant fix it....LOL

Also attached is the original file from the customer in .png and .tiff (Ok so .tiff files arn't allowed).

[Bill Cunningham]

Ooooo gave me a bit of a start!!! I thought that was a weird, accidental, horrible burnt product!! Until, I saw it 'was' the actual graphic the customer wanted..

[john welsh]

i might be wrong or totally off base with this but cermark by nature reacts to temperature so the more heat the better and more permanent the finish?
from what i know and my own experiences from using cermark on sterling silver salvers and silver plated salvers as well as many an ipod is that the ambient temperature of the room just increases or decreases the drying time of the cermark it doesnt really make a diffrence if the room is cold when you engrave the product as the laser generates the heat required to turn the cermark black and i find that with our 75 watt machine that 15% speed and 100% power is spot on every time .we have never had any cermark removed from the product . if we use faster speeds it can lead to us haing to use 2 passes so better safe than sorry in my book ,one other point to note is that metals with certain finished coatings will not work with cermark no matter how much you try .

[Duane Parcells]

I found out what was causing the problems I was having when I moved my laser from the living room to the garage. Living room was at 70 degrees with about 30-40% humidity. The garage averages about 38-42 degrees with humidity in excess of 65% most of the time. First I assumed that the oils off my hands were causing light areas of the engraving. To test this I applied a coat of Cermark to a piece of chrome that had been handled. One side I cleaned with Denatured alcohol and the other side I did not. The side that was not cleaned showed definite light (not black) areas. The mark would also rub or wash off easy just like a engraving that was on poor piece of stainless. The next batch of chrome license frames (I know these to be engravable) I still had a problem. Poor marking quality. These had been cleaned as usual. They still showed poor marks. I noticed a layer of "fog" when I took the frames from the house to the garage to spray and engrave. I assumed the layer of moisture was causing poor adhesion to the surface. Took everything inside the house and let it warm up for a day. Everything went back to the way it used to be. Perfect black marks that are what I used to produce. I can't speak to the Silver substrates you using but I was able to recreate the bad results by both cold and oily methods. Oily parts I can understand getting a poor mark. With the cold and humid I would think the heat produced would negate any problems the moisture was causing. It didn't for some reason. Needs more work.