Recently got the 10W Laser for marking metals and anodized aluminum and tried it on some blank USB drives. At 100% power and speed at 100 mm, it is barely making a mark on the metal. Is it possible to set it up to do multiple passes?
You can do multiple passes, probably won’t help. You need something like Cermark, etc to etch metal properly.
Multiple passes won’t make a difference.
What type of metal are the drives?
Stainless steel should be doing something.
What color is the anodized aluminum?
Check your focus. Make sure it really is 100% power.
You can try dry moly spray lube or mustard as a cheap alternative to Cermark.
-S
Check your focus. Do manual focus if it’s shiny/chrome metal. But even then won’t likely etch.
I’ve actually read that dry moly was bad for the laser. It’s made of molybdenum disulfide which becomes sulfuric dioxide when laser etched and exposed to oxygen, then continues to react more oxygen and moisture to become sulfuric acid and over time can lead to corrosion. Similar to why you don’t laser PVC, which becomes hydrochloric acid (and breathing the chlorine gas is bad as well). It’s better to find something made of molybdenum oxide.
However; I’ve never used either or any marking spray as of yet, so I can’t personally weigh in on potential future damage.
Have never seen anything that says there is a danger from it.
I did do a search and it was hard to find anything. The one place I could find anything was in a blog from Enduramark that was extremely biased. Many of their other points/claims in the same article were dubious marketing spiel.
Many laser manufacturers suggest it. It doesn’t show up on any lists of materials that are not allowed at educational sites or maker spaces.
Material safety data sheets for both dry moly spray lube and MOS2 list no acute hazards.
I do make sure I use with good ventilation.
Now pvc/vinyl is a different story. That releases some nasty stuff. You’re also using it on a much larger amount of material. The dry moly spray is an extremely thin coat.
-S
It was a discord I read it, but now I look into it and I find that article you mentioned and yeah, sounds very biased and markety. Good catch, I probably shouldn’t be crawling the forums after being up so long and after work, makes me forget to do my own research.
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