Hi all! I’d like to print some wording on a black tin lid. What would be the best settings for something like this?
This is the lid I’m using: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P76648D?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
Thanks!
H
You need to use a marking material such as Cermark. The Glowforge can not engrave onto bare metal.
Depending on what the “black” is, it might be possible to remove it via engraving. Sacrifice one to testing.
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Welcome to the forum.
It is unlikely that anyone in the forum has used that exact lid. That being said, you can try the settings others have posted for anodized aluminum.
A quick search will turn up several settings.
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The Proofgrade settings for coated metal are typically 1000 speed, 100 power, 450 LPI. For example, there are PG settings for Black iPhone, Black Microsoft Surface, etc and they all set those settings. It may or may not work depending on how the lid is made. A 40W CO2 laser like a Glowforge cannot engrave into metal, but it can sometimes remove a colored coating that was added to metal, which is what it does for those iPhone/Surface devices.
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To me that sounds like too much power for this item. It’s just paint.
When I did painted bottlecaps my best engrave results were 200/5/270 LPI.
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The thing about it is… The paint goes away… the metal underneath can’t be damaged at all by the laser… So why not just blast the living $@#% out of it? When dealing with stuff like that I just hit max power and fast as I think I can get away with. 
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To much or too little power can make blurry edges. For the best image quality, you have to experiment a little bit.
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Possibly but I would counter that you used too little power and too little speed. The formula puts power to a point over a period of time. You putting 5 power to a point using 200 speed may well be equivalent to 100 power and 1000 speed. And I personally have never seen any fuzzy edges from pooping out too much power to my anodized or painted metal.
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