Has anyone engraved on LZR ALUM .020 metal before?
I have used it at 75 and 60 watt power and it does not look good.
I am open to suggestions
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GF cannot engrave metal. Find some anodized or painted metal and you can burn the anodization/paint off.
Based on the spelling I believe the OP is referring to one of the materials sold by sign/engraving/awards suppliers like Johnson Plastics.
@nynfl1174 does it look like anodized aluminum? If so, there are a lot of anodized aluminum threads in Beyond the Manual.
It is sold by BF and its Laser*it engraveable, LA-05
Not a wordy supplier by any means in their material descriptions. They have a category for anodized aluminum, so I’m guessing it’s some sort of paint/powdercoat. You can search for settings for people who laser paint off of metal or hope someone sees this and has it figured out. I’ve only lased acrylic paint off of wood.
If what you have tried hasn’t worked just keep using more power and/or slower speeds until you find something that works. On a piece of scrap, or in a test area of course.
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Because I know I’ll come searching for this info again some time, Ive found the following works well with the Laser-It aluminum (black, engraves to silver/gold):
Remove protective plastic before engraving
Material Thickness: 0.020 in
Speed: 300
Power: 40
Vary power
LPI: 275
Focus Height: Manual - 0.020 in
You might have to wipe it clean after engraving. Little water on a rag works to shine it up nice!
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My settings for anodized Aluminum are drastically different. I probably shared them at some point but it only applies to the ones I have - business-card blanks. I used one recently to make a tag for my dog’s harness.
These settings are for the Laser-It aluminum, non anodized materials. The Laser-It materials are silver or gold and coated with a black covering. You laser away the black coating to reveal the silver/gold underneath. In sure anodized settings are much different. I think the OP was taking about the Laser-It material, but i could be wrong.
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Yes, which is why I did not post what use for anodized ALU blanks.
I’ve looked into this for zippo lighters, you’d have to do a cut action for it to do anything and then you run the risk of damaging your laser, not worth it at all