Anyone out here use a lot of Cermark style sprays or paste? I have done probably 500 total stainless tumblers and usually used Cermark Ultra spray. It’s $100 a can but does seem to stretch quite a bit further than the 13 oz Omtech spray. I do get similar results from both sprays.
So the question is this… has anyone used the paste, how much of a pain is it to apply and do you get good results? I don’t want to sacrifice quality but I’d like to drop the cost. I can stretch a can to about 75 tumblers (double sided), meaning the cost is $1.35 each.
I have never used (or heard of) the paste, but I do know it would be difficult to get an even coat with it. Maybe you could thin it and spray it with an airbrush sprayer?
Maybe… I guess I’ll just stick to the spray… I need to do a full test and figure out how much less the Omtech Spray stretches out so I can figure out which is cheaper over the long haul. It pains me to spend $1.33 a tumbler on materials but to be fair, the full stainless cups are a touch cheaper too.
All these manufacturers recommend a consistent thickness and have values if you read their documentation. Thicker usually means more dense, but it also means it needs more power and has a lower resolution.
Here’s a couple of their guidelines for settings. These are both PDF, so remove the .txt from them before use.
One of the things I wised up with was some colors or markings disappeared when viewed at an angle. Change some of your parameters for a bit more heat seems to mark them dark and doesn’t change on viewing angle.
I haven’t done a lot of mugs with the fiber, so I don’t know how varied the stainless is from batch to batch. I know changes in source seem to effect how well I do marking. Something is different.
Most of the mugs I have used the LBT100 coating, very nice blacks.
I may make another run with them, trying to anneal them rather than dig into the metal so below is what I get, though that’s Nitronic 60 so not the same 316 stainless.
I can only feel it being a bit more smooth. The valve I lasered has to hold up to corrosion and rust, which really doesn’t apply to Tumblers I suppose. Maybe I’ll spray them with citric acid to passivate them a little… think I’m going to try again. The other problem I have is I suck at doing stuff on the rotary with the fiber laser, I need to spend a day to perfect it because I can always see my lines between slices. My leather ones come out ok, but anything on stainless has lines… I’m a newb at fiber laser with rotary. LOL
Maybe it’s easier than it looks!
