has any one lasered a fire arm??

[Francisco perez]

Hi guys, have any of you lasered a fire arm? is it duable? i have seen it done on youtube but wanted to know if any one has had experiece with this kinda stuff.

[Dan Hintz]

A number of threads here about it... do a search.

[Joe Hillmann]

You bet, half the guns I own are engraved on. For engraving on the stock I cut a piece of cardboard the shape of the stock and engrave on that first to make sure I get the engraving in the right place and focus into the wood a bit because most stocks have curves in them and if you focused on the highest point it would be out of focus at the lower points.

With a CO2 about all you can engrave on a gun is the wooden stock. A CO2 will engrave into a plastic stock but the engraving is the exact same color as the unengraved and I have so far been unable to find a way to color fill it. With a YAG the engraving on a plastic stock comes out a nice gold color and also with a yag you can engrave on the metal parts of the gun as well.

[Dan Hintz]

With a CO2 about all you can engrave on a gun is the wooden stock.

Plenty of metal bits can be engraved with a CO2... the slides provide a large (mostly) flat area to work with. Some nice pics of flame jobs and such posted on here in the past.

[Joe Hillmann]

Plenty of metal bits can be engraved with a CO2... the slides provide a large (mostly) flat area to work with. Some nice pics of flame jobs and such posted on here in the past.

But don't you need bare metal to use cermark? Most guns have some type of protective coating on them (bluing and baked on polymers being most common) or nickle or chrome which from what I understand don't mark with cermark well. Which pretty much leaves you with stainless guns that you can mark on or do a test and see what happens when you burn through the polymer or bluing. (If I am wrong please correct me I don't want to be giving out incorrect information and have someone screw up on a expensive gun because I gave bad information)

[Joe Hillmann]

I just did a test on a polymer coated gun (I think it is just a fancy word for powder coating, it is black and has a slightly rough feel to it) With a 50 watt machine at 100 power. 100 speed 500 ppi & Q4 the first pass engraved into the coating but didn't get to the metal at all leaving the engraving a very dark gray the second pass at the same settings went down to the metal leaving a slightly yellow look to the metal and the third pass had no effect.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

22 1.jpgDSCN1244.jpg

all the time

[Dan Hintz]

But don't you need bare metal to use cermark?

Think of it this way... do you use Cermark on anodized aluminum?

[Kasey Maxwell]

not to be a nag but I have been told by several people that you need to have a FFL (Federal Firearms License) in order to "legally" engrave certain parts of a firearm, unless its for your own guns I suppose

[Mark Sipes]

Might be on to something if that is your sole business....
ATF Web Site:

Q: Is a license needed to engage in the business of engraving, customizing, refinishing or repairing firearms?Yes. A person conducting such activities as a business is considered to be a gunsmith within the definition of a dealer.
[27 CFR 478.11]

[David Fairfield]

Then there is also the possession issue, depending on what state and county you live in. If the owner leaves or ships a pistol to you, then certain laws will apply to you. Best be aware of them.

[Kasey Maxwell]

I went to a gunshop here in Anchorage and offered my engraving services, he said do you have an ffl ? I didn't so he said the guns cant leave his shop unless I have an ffl, so I don't know if that applies if someone brings a gun to your shop and you engrave it, then your just handling a gun..........

[Tim Bateson]

My understanding is the "Dealer" has to stay with the weapon or part of weapon. An individual can do what-ever they want with engraving a weapon. This is a recent Beretta I lasered. It looks like it was lasered down to bare metal, but it's actually whitish. It seemed to be anodized or a thin powder coat.
Beretta.jpg

[Kasey Maxwell]

looks nice, did you hand draw that art ?

[Abe Levinson]

I just wanted to say that a CO2 laser does firearms really well. I have been lucky to recently get 2 different jobs engraving guns. The first was the slide on a Glock. They wanted their name engraved on it. Since I did the graphic, it was vector based so I set the DPI to 600, PPI to 1000, speed at 50%, power at 100%. It came out high contrast silvery gray that was beautiful. No Cermark or coatings at all. The second was a confederate pistol replica with bluing on the barrel. The metal was much darker than the Glock but I just used the same settings. It came out even better than the Glock. As for the legality of engraving firearms, you might be able to get around that if they only provide you with the individual piece of the gun to be engraved, rather than the whole gun itself. You will also find that working with the individual piece will more often than not make positioning and maintaining consistent plane of focus alot easier. One really good method is to take a piece of styrofoam and press the piece down into it until you reach a level plane of focus. I am currently using a 60 watt Spirit GX GCC laser. One of the features on this laser is called SmartCenter where you can set 4 positioning points manually on the laser head and it will automatically engrave your graphic within that specific area. This feature has allowed me to place graphics with phenomenal accuracy in very tight, asymetrical areas and I highly recommend using a laser with this ability if you are going to engrave guns. Hope this helps. Thanks!