Ive gotten so much help from the forum, here’s another question. I’ve been looking and can’t really find out if I can engrave on brass, does anyone know?
Not without a special and relatively pricey laser marking spray such as Cermark. Also note that many brass items have a laquer coating to keep the material from tarnishing. That coating would have to be removed before using the laser marking spray. The spray has to stick directly to the metal for the laser marking to work.
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Thanks so much, you answered my question.
@rpegg’s advice is great, as always. In addition as with most things there is always a bit more to explore. Here’s a roundup on how to work with metals, check out #11:
Further there are “metal” acrylics and engravable sticker sheets that look very much like brass, and also brass plates that are specifically designed to be laser engraved, essentially pretreated with a marking agent.
Acrylics:
https://www.robertsonplastics.com/product/00/ACR-S01188260/Acrylic-Sheet-3mm-Metallic-Brass-Matte
Stickers (and more elsewhere if you google):
Markable brass plaques (previously):
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Brass also has copper in it. I don’t know enough to know whether being turned into brass changes its wavelength enough to not damage the laser, but maybe someone else here does.
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Brass is still something like 85-92% reflective for IR, IIRC, so great care must be used to prevent reflection of the beam back into the lens.
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