That is the question… on the table.
I’ve gotten in 25 stainless steel pendent samples to use as Ginny pigs. One side is mirror finished, the other side is not. Will it hurt my fiber laser head to engrave the mirror finish of these?
Never done anything like that, and I don’t want to screw the pooch.
go for it… i do it all the times on mirror polished stainless
Your pooch should be fine… even without your personal attention… 
Don’t know about yours, but mine has circuitry and sensors to determine the reflected energy and prevent machine damage.
Most of what is engraved with fiber is very reflective and the best results for detail seems to be with highly polished items… even a dull finish reflects a high amount of energy… that’s one of the reasons these use pulses to get high wattage output… mine produces a pulse with about 18kW of peak power…
You should probably check on how your particular laser source handles reflections… Mine is stated in the JPT manual.
If you don’t have a copy of the source manual, you should try and hunt one down. Better to have one available than not… it’s also a good reference for your machine.
So I think @cloxart advice is sound.
Thanks all.
I may actually run it by Emily on FB from BWM for some feedback as well. I figure a customer would rather see the engraving on the polished side -vs- the non pol side.
I got this response from BWM Emily “Hi Phillip, yes, you can engrave polished side sometimes. BUt not recommend for marking on it for longer time. No good for laser source…”
To be safe, I may opt out for the non polished side, OR, mask off the polished side with painters tape for a test drive. Don’t really want to waste time masking though
Well, I’ve run some test on the non-polished side of them. I wish I had the nerve to laser the polished side. They actually don’t sit exactly flat on my bed because of the small clasp for the chain to go through.
I’m inquiring with the supplier if they sell non-polished on both sides.
I really like the looks of them too. Now we have to see if tourist will buy them.
I’d find a manual on the laser source you have and ensure she is giving you correct information about shiny surfaces… Most of what I do is on polished surfaces… Kind of makes it not worth buying a fiber…
Yeah Jack. I think I’m getting confused in her translation. I think what she’s really telling me is that you don’t want to do LOOOOONNNNGGGG engraving time on a piece. Like several minutes per se’
This is what I’m sending to Florida along with other samples.
This piece doesn’t exactly lay flat because of the piece the chain goes through.
I just heard back again from Emily with BWM. When I told her it takes around 3 to 4 seconds, and that the piece doesn’t lay exactly flat, she told me it would be fine. Now to try it on the polished side.
Did it…
