Hello Everyone!
I am a compete newbie, just set up my GF Plus yesterday. I did get to etch and cut on some birchwood plywood and now I am wondering what settings I can use to etch some black aluminum business cards.
Any suggestions? I would really appreciate it.
Brett
Any settings for anodized aluminum should work.
I have not done the business cards, but for other anodized aluminum I have had good luck with 700 speed power 50. You can adjust the lpi for your graphics and text.
Depending on what you’re doing, but if simple graphics I’d use 1000/FULL and 270 DPI for engraving.
Fast and full power for scores too.
I bought some blue anodized 022 cards and am finding that I need to make a double pass to remove all the color when engraving.
Thanks! I really appreciate it.
Thanks! I will try both fast and slow and see which works best.
Thanks! I was afraid of Full because the metal is so thin. But, I will give both 700 and Full a shot.
This laser is not going to cut through metal, so that’s not a concern.
How did these turn out? and if they did what setting did you use on your Glowforge I bought the same cards awhile back and never did anything with them yet, but will now, I know they work on a diode laser form a friend of mine as he showed that it works, so must on the GF, let me know what you did…
I just picked up a 50 pack of the blue (double sided!) cards from Amazon. 700/full, 270 dpi. I took a hint and first rendered an outline onto some plywood scrap, then used double stick tape to hold it into place in the outline, and then rendered the image on the card. Would have been perfect, but the forge did not want to go as fast that close to the side as my registration cut was, so I moved it manually for this test and missed a bit - so my picture is a bit too far to the left. Still, happy with the first sample and the product as well.
If you’re going to make more (but not in bulk), you could put a pencil mark on the lower lip of the crumb tray, and cut an “L” shape jig out of your scrap that aligns to it for repeatability when you want to print one.
You don’t need to tape these down, they’re not going to blow away.
This looks great. I’m trying to do the same on black aluminum and not getting the best results. Did you use a masking tape on top or just engrave directly onto the card?
I did not need any masking on the card itself.
Your Business cards look great. I just received some blanks and want to try them. What did you select for the material before you set your speed & power?
That’s what the “use uncertified material” button is for.
I have been doing the metal business cards also. I found using a cricut mat works great to hold them in place while etching.