I’m trying to laser a silver plated dish to be used as an award plaque. Using Brilliance marking spray, I can get the text to stand out, somewhat. Power too low and text is barely legible, too high and it warps the plate. I’ve manipulated power/speed with no great success. I tried burning an image and am not happy with it. Would using a IR laser be better for this type of project, or is the ultra-shiny metal the problem? I’m currently using the XTool D1 Pro 20W.
This is the help link
It has this video, have you seen it? It’s on using a 10W diode.
I use something similar with my co2, LBT100.
What I’ve found is if the coating is too thick you will loose detail, it takes more power to bond it to the material.
Too thin, also a loss of detail and it generally won’t turn a good black.
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Jack, thank you for this link. I’ve been able to get a “fair” gray color with the text, but images don’t show up as well with the same settings. I may be asking too much from the material I’m using; it’s a plated steel awards plate, and rather thin. I have no experience with an IR laser, and wondering if that’s a better option as it eliminates the need for marking spray. If anyone has an opinion on that, please let me know.
Thanks again
Mike
Hi Mike.
It would because the wavelength of a visible range laser is pretty much unsuitable to fine-mark/engrave metals even indirectly, but in order to acchieve passable results, You’d need to venture into deeper IR region (like CO2).
Near-IR like the 1064nm varities will help, but not much, no matter what they advertize.
To make matters worse, most near-IR diode modules -like the xTool IR- have a very narrow ~0,5mm usable DOF (depth of field), so the area to be lasered can’t be large, or special measures has to be taken to ensure that the X-Y motion plane and the work plane are parallell within that margin.
Yes and no.
All metals are highly reflective when heated up (even moreso if heated up into molten state), so there’s always a chance of the reflections to damage the lens or the laser unit, or both.
But as far as the ability to mark metal goes, the apparent shininess or lack of it doesn’t matter much.
Regards,
Sam
If you mean the 2W types that mount on your laser, I wouldn’t recommend. I’ve seen many posts where they can’t reproduce what’s in the advertisement.
Any laser is going to have a depth of focus (dof) for that lens length. Shorter lens, less dof.
A regular fiber laser will mark metals which is 1064nM.
Sam, that’s very useful information. I do not have a laser business, but have sold enough to have paid for my XTool. This current project is for a friend, but could expand into something a little profitable. I’m not sure if I really want to go into the CO2 realm at this time. But it is inviting.
Thank you again!
Mike
Hi.
You’re welcome Mike.
That’s great.
For me a laser is just a tool to aid in other things, I don’t even try to make money with it.
ATM anyway 
.
I understand that completely, that is quite a leap, in more ways than one.
But there’s just a certain amount a visible range diode laser can do, and a near-IR diode even less, so at one point that or a fiber more or less inevitable.
Unlike these entry level diode systems, CO2 lasers most likely won’t get any cheaper anytime soon (rather the opposite), and the relatively complex and demanding mechanical side obviously won’t either.
One option could be to install a fiber-unit onto the xTool (or other) mechanics, but those are relatively rare, and IMO rather expensive.
That it sure is.
Fortunately, I don’t have enough use even for my diode to justify buying/building/maintaining a CO2 laser 
.
Regards,
Sam