How to handle really shiny materials i.e. Hard drive disks

[joe]

As is, hard drive disks are VERY reflective to a CO2 laser. If you take the metalization layers off, then you would just have a blank aluminum or glass disk.

You might be able to use cermark to mark it. Hmmm, question for people with cermark experience. Does the laser go through it and hit the material underneath?

Favourite materials

So you know how on a half-dozen occasions someone’s said “don’t cut glass mirrors!” and I’ve said “those aren’t mirrors when you’re a 10600nm photon.” Or similar. Basically what you think of as a mirror, isn’t, to Glowforge wavelengths. Well, hard drive disks are VERY VERY GOOD MIRRORS to Glowforge, and I would strongly recommend not putting them inside. Glowforge is designed so that it won’t cause too much havoc, but it’s not going to do anything good either.