[sdiy] Laser etching

[Tim Parkhurst]

Hi All,

I've played with something like this and had pretty good results. I found a
place at the local mall that does laser engraving on keychains and whatnot,
and he agreed to work with me on doing some front panels (he's done similar
work for a few hi-tech firms). HOWEVER, here are some of the catches...

1) The process does NOT work well with aluminum. Apparently the metal heats
up too quickly or is too soft. If you use aluminum, it has to be specially
coated (you mentioned this, but didn't say what the coating was or if it was
expensive). Even then, the guy I worked with said the results can be
variable.

2) The process DOES work well with stainless steel. Clean, beautiful black
lines, and readable text even in very small sizes. Now, as neat as stainless
steel panels would be, they would be a TOTAL pain to cut and drill. Luckily,
the solution came in a very thin roll of adhesive backed stainless steel.
The stuff comes in a four inch wide roll and the glue is very durable. I
knocked out a few test samples in CorelDraw, applied the resulting "steel
stickers" to some small 3U panels I had, and carried the samples around in
my briefcase for a few weeks. They got knocked around pretty good, but the
adhesive held and the steel (which has a light grain and a plastic overcoat)
resisted scratches very nicely. 

Now granted, this was just a quickie test, but I'm pretty happy so far. If I
needed to do a panel wider than four inches, I would have to use multiple
strips but you could arrange the graphics so that the line wouldn't be too
noticeable. I think though, that four inches wide and (about) eighteen
inches high should cover all but the most ambitious modules. The graphics
are all vector based (no bitmaps), but this is part of what makes them so
clean. Also, the laser interprets 'solid' outlines (things like circles and
rectangles) to be 'cuts' so I can get pre-cut openings for jacks and pots.
If you don't want the shape to be cut out, just make it from a series of
non-joined arcs or lines. I'm definitely going to use this on some modules
when I get some time (that's the magic ingredient, isn't it?). Oh, the guy
wants about $10US per sticker. This will cover a wide 3U or even something
slightly bigger (he may want a few bucks more for a 6U). I think it's not
too bad considering I don't have to paint or letter the panels, and the
vertical grain stainless looks pretty sharp.

Any thoughts?

Tim Servo





> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shokwave [mailto:shokwave at nb.aibn.com]
> Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 5:15 AM
> To: sdiy
> Subject: [sdiy] Laser etching
> 
> 
> Hi all!
> 
> One of my student's fathers has a laser ecthing machine. It tales vector
> files or bitmaps, and draws with a high-temperature laser beam; some of
you
> may be familiar with this process. I can access this service for personal
> use at very good rates, so I would like to use this for front panel
> graphics. Has anyone used this before on aluminum? It needs to be coated,
> but I think it can draw on anodized surfaces. I don't understand the
process
> behind anodizing & powder coating, and I have no idea what this looks like
> after the laser draws on it. I think with the anodized stuff you run the
> laser twice to overdraw the area, but I really have no idea for sure. Any
> idea what the result of this will be? I'm guessing black lines, but maybe
> with anodized surfaces it takes off the colour and leaves the natural
> aluminum??? I don't know if I need a light colour for the aluminum
surface,
> or a dark colour...I assume light.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated; this could be a *very* good way to do front
> panel graphics, and this sort of service is becoming ubiquitous. I bet
most
> of you could find a similiar company close by.
> 
> -Darren



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