Small metal engraving?

Jewelry/Small Metals
1

I have some 1 inch diameter pieces of aluminium/brass I would like to engrave for a hurricane Harvey relief donations to the Red Cross.
I would like to give away some of the products I sell and think I could get more if they were engraved.
I gave 2 away this morning to two people that showed me $40 receipts of donations to the Red Cross.
And think I could encourage lots of other donations for a personalized “I gave to the relief fund” kind of item.

I think this might be a cool piece for someone to practice their jewelry engraving skills on.
I will be at DMS tonight if anyone would like to discuss something like this.
I have around 50 of these items id like to personalize for donations.

Thanks,
Mark
Also I posted this in the craft category, to see if someone could do a lot at one time on the shapeoko.

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2

Have you considered using the metaza in ca for your images? I think it would be good for what you’re wanting, maybe. Not positive if limitations of blanks size and metal, but I think they could be done on it, and can get very fine detail

@Kriskat30?

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3

Rotary attachment on the laser?

4

I have not Im not sure what that is, I will look into it though, thank you

5

If that would work that would be AWESOME, I know how to use that, but I haven’t been able to get it to etch brass.

I haven’t tried aluminium but will do that tonight, anyone know if it will etch aluminium?

6

The laser, by itself, will not etch metal. However, you can apply a resist, such as paint, etch that, then apply a chemical etch.

Sodium Hydroxide, drain cleaner, is a good choice to etch aluminium.

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7

what if I put say nail polish on there, let it dry, etch that off? something like that?

8

This is what the Metaza can do …

image
image483×597 140 KB

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9

The Metaza will work well, but it’s not a deep “etch”. I’ve had a lot of success with chemical etching as @wandrson suggests, but it can be a bit messy, and it’s time consuming.

10

is there any local source for something like that ceramark? the ceramic you can laser etch on to something?

11

The engravers network in Arlington sells cermark. It is not cheap. Check their website

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12

Cermark does not etch into metal. The laser bonds it to the surface of the metal, but it can wear off. JDS Industries probably has some in stock in Dallas, but you need a tax ID to set up an account with them.

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There is an alternative to Cermark that is less expensive and uses the same active ingredient.

https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/less-expensive-cermark-alternative/24804/2?u=wandrson

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14

I think some people were also etching tumblers with the sandblaster.

15

That is awesome, if I only I had my wifes cricut with me!!!
I will have to try that tonight, I have some cool ideas to etch on there.
…anyone taken the vinyl cutter class wanna hang out with me for a few mins tonight?

16

There is a Cameo at DMS and also a vinyl cutter. @mreynolds - is a class required for the Cameo? I believe training is required for the vinyl cutter.

17

Metaza is that thingy that…ok, like in malls, you bring in a small photo and they can smoosh the image imprint into metal? Yeah, that thingy. We haves it. Good pics above.

Sorry for all the technical jargon, but I think you get the idea… :stuck_out_tongue:

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18

I think the Metsae would work, I took the class the other night

Leeza or Kris would be the go tos on it

19

Yes, I do have a couple of pieces that I printed on aluminum with the Metaza. The image is etched a little deeper than it appears and someone actually tried to polish it to see if the image disappeared. It didn’t.

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20

I wonder if it would be deep enough to hold alcohop inks then polisth
the surface