I have a diode laser machine. If I engrave any surface that can reflect the laser. Is there a risk of the reflection burning the machine’s laser?
With a diode laser? Y E S !
I have thought about this too, and decided I would put a slight tilt on the metal just to be safe. Safer even more is to use a coating of some type on the metal. I bought a 2oz. can of CerMark for $25, and it is stunningly effective on chef knives. But expensive.
+1. When attacking a reflective surface, I use the FIRE button on the MOVE tab to energize the beam, then I tilt the media or on rotary, offset the laser until the reflection sits off the laser lense area.
To engrave a mirror, engrave from the back side. Remember to reverse the image!
Be aware of where the reflection is pointed to. It can and will cause irreparable eye damage if you are careless
Due to the reflections, I did not remove the protection that comes with the module. It is very difficult to focus and center, but I am at least somewhat cautious about that problem.
What protection? It shouldn’t be that difficult to focus. Do you have a focus block or some way to set it?
Any laser I know of is susceptible to reflection damage. If not at the diode then elsewhere.
My co2 was marking stainless steel, with no coating… didn’t come out too bad, but not usable for sale. It did cost me a $20 lens that was burnt almost through… Wondered why is wasn’t working very well.
The fiber has circuits to detect and prevent or limit reflective issue damage.
Hi Jack!
My laser is the one in the attached image and the protection is that red square.
From the very little I know about lasers, there is usually a gauge (as was included in the original module) to do the focusing. In this case, I only recently got an SD card adapter to serve as a gauge. How focus caliber works 5 stars. In other words, the height from the part to the protection is just 2mm.
The problem is centering the beam. The protection does not allow the beam point to be seen when the power is low. With power of 20 to 30% you can already see it, but not for a large part of the work I do because it involves engravings on canvas or tiles.
EDIT:
The reply took flight but the image remained on the ground. 
