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Thread: White marking on black

  1. #1

    White marking on black

    I am trying to figure out white marking on black steel. Example would be a black firearm. My guess is high frequency and low power? Any help would be appreciated. I also am looking for training course i can take? I live in Atlanta and would like to take a class so i can learn all aspects of my fiber laser
    Thanks,
    Chad

  2. #2
    Black is vague; you'll discover different parts/materials/finishes will require different settings to get an ideal mark. Glock tenifer is pretty easy to bleach, but tougher to deep engrave. (It took 45 mins or so to engrave front serrations on my pistol.) AR-15s aka anodized aluminum are simple. Parkerized steel is pretty easy....brass Goldenboys can be tougher. The obvious answer is practice, but you'll find folks are reluctant to lend for R&D

    I know there is a guy north of you that offered assistance to another fellow with a similar request. Maybe he will chime in.

    Watching youtube videos should clue you into the speed and power settings and loops for a few of these. I was able to learn a lot by watching others.

    Over time you'll understand what the machine is capable of doing and have a good list of starting points. I had a lady bring me a Cricket the other day and wanted the engraving on the polymer stock. She waited up front while I did some testing on the fly; starting with high speed and low power I was able to slowly ramp up power (and decrease speed) to get an optimum result. She left happy.
    Epilog Legend 36EXT ~35W
    30W Fiber Laser
    Ender 3 PRO
    Corel X6
    AutoCAD 2019
    FFL 01

  3. #3
    For bright marking steels, start with a .05-.07mm cross hatch, zero power, 1500-2000 speed and your lowest frequency, which is equal to your machine's wattage (30 watt machine, 30kz, 20 watt machine, 20kz, etc.)...
    Increase power by 5% until you get some marking going on.

    -- you want a wide hatch, low power, LOW frequency and high speed to keep the metal removal at it's max while keeping heat soak to a minimum. Once marking happens, just run repeat passes to see what's going on Raise the power a little and/or lower the speed a little, as long as the cut isn't discoloring, because once you start seeing gold, there's pretty much no going back. Gold is the metal and the carbon in it discoloring...

    High frequency running simply means beam energy is hitting the work more often within a given time, and that creates more heat. And heat is what you DON'T want if you're going for bright because it will burn the metal and darken the carbon at the surface, and once the metal's burnt, it's near impossible for a the laser to shine it back up again...
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
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