Engraving AR mag

I used a .jpeg file that I found online. Crumb tray was removed and I put 3 groups of 3 magnets stacked on top of each other and rested the mag on top of those. Magnets stick well to the bottom of the Glowforge and the spring inside the mag. I used my calipers to get the mag to the same level as the top of the crumb tray and the 3 magnets just happened to get me where it needed to be. Focus was set for .500”. Setting were full power, full speed @270lpi
I did some testing and found that these settings worked better. Engrave: s-1000,p-50%,340lpi & Score: s-500,p-12%,340lpi. Did some small letter testing and found the score setting worked really well. I think there is still some tweaking to the settings but it’s a good starting point. The engraves are kind of hard to see until you get light on it at the right angle. I think my next tests will be lowers then painting a spot on the mag where I want the object and engrave the paint away to reveal it. I’ll post pics of that when I get around to it.

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Your focus setting might have been your issue. Setting it to .5 would mean you mag was .5" above your crumb trays regular height which is doesnt sound like it was

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Duh!!! Can’t believe I didn’t catch that :joy:. I measured the height of the mag off the floor and it defaulted to .500” from that input value. Thanks for catching that error. I’ll redo it with the correct height and check the results. Maybe they should put something in the ui for focus height without the crumb tray. So say I have a 1” tall object I plug in that value in and it tells me to space the object up from the floor the correct amount and automatically set the focus. I know it’s easy math but you get caught up in other things and it’s easy to make an error.

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If you want, I made a tutorial on doing the measurements back in PRU days:

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Ill throw a glock mag in mine tonight. The annoyance of taking out the crumb tray has stopped me recently.

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Here is my first glock mag test. Tried to fill it with paint as well. I think I prefer unfilled

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I did some more testing as well. Turned out way better this time. Also tried coloring it in and prefer it not colored

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The pmag colour change is way better. I wish the glock mags did that as well.

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Has anyone done a lower yet? I’m eager to see how well he gets through the anodizing.

I haven’t seen anyone try one yet but I will be giving it a go maybe next week.

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Slowed the engrave down a little and I think it came out much crisper

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You just gave me some ideas for my range mags… Did you have to remove the crumb tray? I just got my Glowforge yesterday and haven’t done much with it yet.

Yep, anything except a 1911 mag is going to require you to take out the crumb tray sadly

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Damn, thanks for letting me know! Should I place the glock mag in solo or have it rest on something. Going to do my single stack G43 mags first to test it out.

Removing the tray is simple (you just need to find legos or whatever to prop it up on (pieces of :proofgrade: scrap stacked work great). If you are going to lay the mag directly on the honeycomb make sure it lays exactly flat (like if there is a lip at the bottom of the mag for instance) then you have a variable focus situation, which needs to be avoided.

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For glock mags my setup is a steel parallel (1/2 i think), then 1" diameter magnets then the glock mag. That gets it into the glowforge range and keeps it planted

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Looks like the only place you can prop it up to keep it perpendicular to the laser is between the two red arrows? Beware the bumpout at the bottom could knock it off level which would change the focus.

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Thanks so much for the advice! I’ll try it out over the weekend and post my results. Been so busy here at the school, I haven’t had a chance to play with the machine

Any updates on this? I tried myself on engraving my mag and felt like it did not really come out god. To see it you have to view from an angle but dead on it kinda blends in.

pretty much how it goes; even when I do painted metal mags it only shows at a certain angle; it’s a very subtle thing. You might want to do it with masking on and spraypaint/fill it afterwards

If I get some time I have a glock frame I’m going to play with and try stippling.