Engraving chrome Zippos

[nestedgiftsdesign]

Hi,
I have some engraved zippos I am planning to engrave for groomsman gifts. I’ve only engraved woods and acrylic so far. I thought I had read certain metal finishes can ruin the laser. Is a chrome finish ok to put in the glowforge? If yes, does anyone have any recommended settings

[dklgood]

The Glowforge cannot engrave any metal. It can, however, mark metal with a marking agent such as CerMark.

[evansd2]

To expand a bit on @dklgood’s excellent advice, check out #11:

Common problems/questions

Hello! You’ve been referred to this post because you have a common problem or question. Check out the list below to see what this post can do for you. Just click on a topic that interests you.

1: I'm new to Glowforge and really have no idea where to start

Hey, welcome to the forum! Glowforge has a getting started page, it’s definitely worth your time: <a href="https://support.glowforge.com/hc/en-us/sections/11792517736475-Design-and-Print-Tutorials">https://support.glowf…

[jamesdhatch]

If the Zippos are painted or powder coated, you can run an engrave operation and it will burn off the paint/powder coating leaving you with a silver “etch”.

[cynd11]

I think it’s copper that you don’t want to put into the laser, due to its high reflectivity in a CO2 laser. Probably alloys that are high in copper (maybe some brasses? Unsure about this) would also be problematic.

[nestedgiftsdesign]

got it! Thanks for all the advice!