Just wanted to share my project. I just bought my ortur 15w for hobby projects but with the main idea to engrave my logo into the aluminum lids of my honey pots (beekeeper here). Before my purchase and I read that engraving metals is impossible but engraving painted metals would work. I found examples online of black anodised aluminum being engraved but I found the ‘champagne’ color ano that I am using nowhere. Anyway, I’m engraving my lids now and they look fantastic.
Below my setup for the serieswork (I made a cardboard mould to line them up perfectly) and the end result.
Hope you guys like it and hopefully this info is useful to someone
Sure:
Ortur 15W
Cutting cardboard (2 layers, 5mm thick): 3 passes at 80%, 300mm/min
Etching Aluminum lids: 1 pass at 80%, 1200mm/min (but I think a little bit faster will be better)
But I’m curious… are they really anodized aluminum or are they plated steel? (Does a magnet stick to them?)
I’ve bought a lot of little jars and lids (I was a beek for a while also) and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that style lid in aluminum.
If they’re plated steel and you’ve lasered off the coating then I’m wondering if they’ll have a tendency to rust. For short term use under reasonable storage condition’s they’re probably OK but it still makes me wonder.
Whoops, you guys are right, its steel and not alu.
What is poly? I’ve been looking into varnish spray but it looks like a hassle and too much work. (needs to be food safe as well)
So if they start to rust I probably won’t continue with lasering them.
I am now doing a test to keep a few lasered ones wet with salted water.
If they don’t start to rust maybe I am just discolouring the varnish and not removing it.
Polyurethane finish, used practically anywhere you want a ‘plastic’ finish. It comes in two forms (at least on this side of the pond), water based, which is easy to clean up and a bit more environmentally friendly, and VOC solvent based, which requires organic solvents to clean up. In both cases the poly strands form as the solvent (water or VOC) evaporates and, in some cases, is food safe, once cured. It’s a good seal, but, as I pointed out, the water based version is not recommended on metals that will corrode.
Final update:
I did the test with the salt water: With power settings too high (burned varnish) the lids will rust.
With lower power settings (varnisch turns white iso yellow) they don’t rust.
So I will keep on lasering the logo on the lids but with low enough settings to not burn the varnish.
I can’t add the setting details as they vary per batch of lids (different varnish thicknesses?)
