Successful Altoid Tin Engraving

stennml · June 27, 2021, 4:11pm

Sharing settings that have worked brilliantly for me engraving designs on black altoid tin blanks from amazon (with gratitude to others who shared their settings, which was an invaluable starting point) :

SPEED = 700
POWER = 80
LINES PER INCH = 1355

CRUMB TRAY = out
tins sitting on top of 0.9" block (in my case, mounted battleship lino i had on hand)
had GF set focus (tried manual entry, but results better with this)
masked tin with blue painter’s tape (important to mask!)

Curious if anyone has suggestion for a protective coating to spare tin from scratching?

Keep forging,
laurin

dklgood · June 27, 2021, 4:14pm

Thanks for sharing this. Would you care to share a photo of the results?

evansd2 · June 27, 2021, 4:21pm

This is a feature, not a bug. If someone scratches their cool tin, that just makes them a repeat customer

stennml · June 27, 2021, 4:28pm

stennml · June 27, 2021, 4:28pm

evansd2 · June 27, 2021, 4:33pm

Your altoids, your time, but your LPI is crazy high… it’ll make your engraves absolutely glacial. How long does one tin take?

I do 900 speed, 80 power and 340 LPI. Works great. A full face tin engrave takes about 6 minutes. I am guessing yours is more like 20 minutes, maybe more? Granted your edges will be slightly cleaner than mine, but at 340 I can’t really see the difference.

After I engrave, I wipe the tin with alcohol, takes up the residue and makes it super shiny. Guessing you know that trick, yours are nice and clean too.

dklgood · June 27, 2021, 4:54pm

The result is beautiful. I would never consider an lpi this high, however. My eyesight doesn’t discern this level of detail.

rvogt · June 28, 2021, 2:56am

Looks great, but as stated, you can bring that lpi way down!!

ChristyM · June 28, 2021, 6:30am

These look great!Thanks for sharing the settings that work best for you. I know a lot of people appreciate having a starting point.

I feel like spray poly would do the trick for protection.

ptodd · June 28, 2021, 12:02pm

They turned out very nice. Maybe try Rust-Oleum 2X Ultra Cover Clear spray to protect the surface?

stennml · June 28, 2021, 1:38pm

Thanks, everyone! I did lots of testing. Posted the settings that work FOR ME ~ the extra high LPI does take more time, but in the end it polishes up extra shiny, which is what I was after. Glad GF has settings we can all adjust according to our needs / preferences

stennml · June 28, 2021, 1:38pm

@ptodd much obliged!

stennml · June 28, 2021, 1:39pm

@ChristyM thank you!!

jamely · June 28, 2021, 5:21pm

These look fantastic, and very very shiny

Did you happen to try defocusing the laser? aka focusing at a height above the surface of the tin? I do so for engraving acrylic to get a smoother end result, and do 225 LPI. You might try it (up to a quarter inch above the surface) and get the same results at a faster job speed.

celesteprobichaux · June 28, 2021, 9:59pm

very nice indeed.

rbtdanforth · June 28, 2021, 10:31pm

Mine is as well, but crazy is in the eyes of those doing it. I tried 450 LPI and now I am going back at 1355 full power 2000 speed as I am not looking to make it any deeper. The piece is 1.5 in diameter…

kelley1 · June 28, 2021, 11:24pm

I don’t know why, but that first photo made me laugh!

iris.astorga · October 2, 2021, 4:40am

Hi,
I am try to print on tin and it is not working. Could you please help me and share a little more detail on your settings?

Did you cover tin with painters tape or coat it with anything?

Did you remove crumb tray? If so, did you place anything under the lid?

What material did you mark it as?

Did you hit customize in the settings?

Any help would be appreciated Day 1 for me and it was a flop with the tin and my wood puzzle.

Thanks,
Iris

Xabbess · October 2, 2021, 5:51am

He was using anodized aluminum tins. When you engrave those, it merely takes off the top coating (see his photo) and exposes the metal underneath. You cannot engrave on just bare tin unless you use a marking medium like Cermark, and even then I’m not sure Cermark works on tin. Anodized aluminum doesn’t need any masking on it. As far as where he placed it on the honeycomb bed, I don’t have that information. If you are using anodized aluminum, you should be able to find lots more information by doing a search…and there’s a lot more information right in this same post.