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Metal Marking Example

I messed around wit the electro etch a little this morning. I put some of that clear packaging tape on a piece of 4140 steel and cut out a few places on it. Using a solution of salt and water, I dipped a q-tip in it and put the swab on the negative side of my battery charger. On the 100A jump start setting I could get a .005" etch pretty easily, I measured it with a depth mic. I'm going to make a proper pad for this and order some stencils. I was hoping for a deeper etch, I may try some different electrolyte solutions.
.005 is pretty deep. The thing you gotta watch out for is undercutting-asyour etch gets deeper what starts to happen is it starts to remove material from the sides of the impression as well as the bottom. If it undercuts your stencil too much you can start to loose clarity, your design can become muddled.
 
Well fellas, I followed through with my "enough scotch to by a laser" and pulled the trigger on a OMTech 50 watt with rotary. May do a setup thread if anyone has any tips or tricks but there looks to be plenty of Youtube stuff to get me going.
 
Well fellas, I followed through with my "enough scotch to by a laser" and pulled the trigger on a OMTech 50 watt with rotary. May do a setup thread if anyone has any tips or tricks but there looks to be plenty of Youtube stuff to get me going.

Hell yeah! Please do start a thread. I'm teetering on buying one.
 
Well fellas, I followed through with my "enough scotch to by a laser" and pulled the trigger on a OMTech 50 watt with rotary. May do a setup thread if anyone has any tips or tricks but there looks to be plenty of Youtube stuff to get me going.
Do you have a link to the one you bought? Seems like there at lots of options on 50w lasers….from $3200 to $6200
 
If anyone is looking for an IMG electro mark. I have one new, on my bench that I unpacked but never used. Has all the fluids and new marking pens.

$1000.00 + shipping
 
That's what I did. The only catch is the powered heads don't engrave a consistent depth on curved surfaces. The larger the type, the more noticable it is. I made a custom guard for mine that follows the barrel contour better and it does an acceptable job and it's only takes 5 minutes start to finish.

There is a spring loaded tracing stylus that solves the problem. Think I have a photo, will search for it on my laptop.
 
There is a spring loaded tracing stylus that solves the problem. Think I have a photo, will search for it on my laptop.



Solid tracer top, spring plunger tracer bottom

9OxTg3Y.jpg


Engraving livestock brass tags below. This old pantograph has a lot of uses.

rUZdeVt.jpg
 
Hey gents I wanted to post something up since I had the new laser up and running. It took me a few weeks to get acclimated to everything but I know there was some interest in it so I wanted to post as promised but I don't know how to embed videos here (I took them on my phone and compressed them but I'm not sure what the max allowances are for video size). Bringing this one back up to the top just in case there's still some interest in it as I'll be happy to give an update and quick write-up on what I've found. I'll say this...it's and game changer for sure.
 
Hey gents I wanted to post something up since I had the new laser up and running. It took me a few weeks to get acclimated to everything but I know there was some interest in it so I wanted to post as promised but I don't know how to embed videos here (I took them on my phone and compressed them but I'm not sure what the max allowances are for video size). Bringing this one back up to the top just in case there's still some interest in it as I'll be happy to give an update and quick write-up on what I've found. I'll say this...it's and game changer for sure.
I’m interested in what you have learned. Please write something up.
Joe
 

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