Can anyone tell me if “Laserable” brass can be engraved with a 5.5w Diode?
All the research I’ve done shows it being performed with fibre or CO2 but doesn’t mention diode as a possibility or rule it out.
If you mean engraved, then no chance. Marked, maybe… with a tail wind.
I guess the test would be to “acquire” a sample piece to test before shelling out $ on a sheet.
Wanted purely for trophy labels. Might check out local engravers for a piece.
I’m not sure my 100W would engrave brass - too ductile, too much conduction of heat.
If you want stuff cut out, I know a guy…
I’ve seen diode lasers heat-mark steel, but it’s just a temperature shift, not removing anything. I suspect brass would be out of the question without using a marking compound like Enduramark or Cermark. If the “laserable brass” in question has such a coating made for engraving, it might work.
Somewhat off-topic, but at least tangentially related: has anyone tried using molybdenum disulfide dry spray lube with brass? Works great with steel/stainless but haven’t tried it on brass and don’t have anything I could test it on.
Be careful with that - Disulfide contains sulfur, which produces sulfuric acid when burned. Not good for you or the laser hardware - similar to cutting vinyl.
I suppose I never thought about that - as the MoS2 burns and the Mo adheres to the metal the sulphur will oxidise to SO4(2-) - any free hydrogen will combine with it to create H2SO4. I’ll have to do some tests to confirm this speculation.
Side note: MoS2 is almost certainly one of the active pigmenting ingredients in Cermark. I’ll have to check their MSDS and see if it mentions sulphuric acid production in use.
I guess it would depend if it’s “one-off” project, or regular runs. Wouldn’t want to subject man OR machine to that for extended periods.
They don’t use sulfide - I can’t recall which chemical they do use, but it’s rarer, and part of the reason Cermark is more expensive. It’s more stable and dries considerably faster. They have a paper out that talks about it, but of course I can’t find it now.
Found it:
I thought it interesting that a company that manufactures a marking product would discourage the use of a cheaper product, so I asked a friend on another forum who happens to be a chemist what his take was.
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