Black background relief for Glock slide engraving - 80W MOPA

Community Laser Talk
1

Hello! Looking for some LightBurn Settings advice.

I’ve got a Haotian 80W MOPA Fiber laser that I am learning to love. I am absolutely still ensconced in “newbie” status.
Engraving a Glock slide, which I understand is likely nitrided or Tenifer-treated 4140 steel, and in the case I’m working on – the slide has a FDE (Flat Dark Earth) cerakote covering as well.

It engraved quite nicely with the settings I was using - but the background was actually lighter, than darker. If it will let me - I’ll add a photo. Settings used:

  • Speed: 200
  • Frequency: 30
  • Q-Pulse: 300
  • Power: 90%
  • Mode: Fill
  • Line interval: 0.0250
  • Scan Angle varied between 45 & 90
  • Did 4 sets of 4 passes with a final clean-up round at Speed 2000; Frequency 50; Q-Pulse 200; Power 80; Line interval 0.1

Any recommendations likely to help get a black background for my finish?

THANKS!

Joe

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CerMark. Small can is about $20 Amazon.

3

I have some steel parts that I have managed to create black markings on.

steel-fiber-om-anneal
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It’s sanskirt for OM, first sound made, supposedly. It’s on steel that’s about 1/2” thick.

Unfortunately I corrupted my source file disk along with the backup disk, so I can’t tell you what settings I used.

I’d fine a bar of the same material and see what you can discover. I believe it was a lower frequency and a long q-pulse, that’s about all I recall.

This is another piece of the same scrap, there are limited colors available with steel.

felix-ball-steel-0
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:grinning_cat:

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Thanks! Got my can this week, and running tests later today!

5

With a fiber machine, you shouldn’t need a coating like cermark.

:grinning_cat:

6

True, but the Cermark will make the text stand up like a coating rather than flat like an anneal. He now has a choice. :grin:

7

I just imagined that he would deeply engrave a slide and then blacken the recessed part.

:grinning_cat:

8

I thought he wanted it to be darker as one operation.

9

He advised he wanted to engrave it, so a coating isn’t going to work unless you do it separately.

:grinning_cat:

10

Agreed. I think of Cermark less as a coating and more a fusion of materials. Apparently it comes in white, copper and green as well.

11

Hi gang - thanks for the dialogue here. As some pointed out, with my 80W MOPA Fiber laser getting a jet black base is rarely a problem if I have the settings dialed in. For the Glock, oddly with fairly deep engraving I had an odd light green background. I knew ot was risky (but as it was my own gun) I tried inking it with the same technique I use for my hand-engraving and that was mostly a Charlie-Foxtrot. On the other side I prepped with the Cermark prior to lasering — and it left an odd / interesting gold tinted background.
I decided to do the top naked so clients could look at mine and have some choices…. And amazingly left a super-shiny black background… and same settings but not as deep as the engraving on the sides. The only thing I did differently was better pre-laser cleaning surface prep with carb cleaner. So - I may keep doing that. Will be interesting to see how a side reacts with that.

1 Like