What does everyone use in their attempts to etch on metal (stainless and so on)? I have been looking at some products and was blown away by the pricing. Probably isn’t horrid for a company that can factor such things into their quotes but for hobbyists, most are way too high. I did find something referencing CRC dry Molly lube. Anyone have experience with it?
https://forum.snapmaker.com/search?q=moly
There is some info in other posts
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Another and relatively simple option for marking on metal is to mask the metal, burn off the mask with the laser and then etch the picture.
There are plenty of good videos on youtube, but in short what worked for me:
- I borrowed a little nail polish from my daughter to paint a mask
- burnt an image on the masked metal (burning off the nail polish)
- mixed water (warm is quicker) and salt in a jar
- connected a 12V power supply a) negative to a washer (any piece of scrap metal) which is put in the jar and b) positive wire to the piece you want to mark. A couple of minutes and you have a nice etched marking that won’t wear off. You can also use a 9 volt battery if you have one available.
- when the etching as deep enough, the nail polish is easily washed off with acetone
You may also use vinyl, tape etc as a mask, but the nail polish worked well with very sharp edges and its cheap and easy to clean off. Instead of dropping the etchable part of the object in the solution, you can also use a wet (with salt water) cotton swab, connect the negative wire to it (and positive to your object) and apply to the unmasked area. This is slower but you have more control over the result. The time it takes depends on the amount of electricity, size of object, salt solution, etc. so I suggest you do a couple of tests to get the feeling, before making your first attemp on something expensive.
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