Laser engrave powder coated aluminum
Hi all,
I'm verry happy with my stepcraft. And I want to expand my possibilities.
I mainly mill aluminum and wood. And I want to be able to laser engrave these materials with my stepcraft.
I'm aware that engraving aluminum requires a lot of power, but I actually don't mean engraving the aluminum. My alu material is in most case anodized of black powder coated. So I wish to engrave the powder coat/anodize layer to apply text or other custom artwork.
Can that be done with a stepcraft?
I don't know where to look... can somebody help me?
Is the stepcraft laser head available for sale yet? Will it fit the job?
Kind regards,
Mathieu
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How about the Mini Engraving Point?
Daniel
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I think the mini engraver will scatter the powder coat rather then giving nice clear edges.
I'm having a lot of troubles with my t-slot bed not being flat. which causes small mill/engraving point to break. So laser engraving the powder coat will be more effective get nice and clean engraving then using mill.
That is my experience of course.
So I was think a laser which is no heavy enough to engrave the aluminum but heavy enough to get through the coat would be ideal, plus the resolution of a laser is probably a bit better. I think height differences less then 1 mm won't make any difference on the laser engraving.
Does anyone has experience with this?
I personally do not have any laser experiance, but a commercial company I use for acid etching has laser units (3) but not designed for cutting metal, they will not use them for cutting wood if there is a risk the laser can touch metal, (I wanted to have thin wooden planks engraved that were fixed to a thin metal sheet) as the laser can bounce back up damaging the laser head, not sure if this applies to all lasers, but thought I would post it as I know it can be a serious problem.
Alan
SC600/2, Kress 1050, UCCNC with UC100, Cut2D Pro, TurboCAD and Fusion 360
Never thought of that, but I could be a problem.
I don't have experience myself so I'm waiting until someone comes by with the right knowledge.
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