Laser Marking Metal

[Uranium]

I still think you should go with CO2. It is absorbed by many more things than YAG, plus it's CW.

You can easily make your own lenses by making a plaster of paris mold of the plano-convex/concave lens you need. Then melt salt with a blowtorch or a really hot fire and pour it in.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I still think you should go with CO2. It is absorbed by many more things than YAG, plus it's CW.

You can easily make your own lenses by making a plaster of paris mold of the plano-convex/concave lens you need. Then melt salt with a blowtorch or a really hot fire and pour it in.

We really want you to go with CO2 here

Uranium, wow I did not know that .

 

[alexjt]

CO2 will not engrave metal unless it has oxygen assist or is in the thousands of watts of strength. Trust me, I've tried. (My job is laser engraving :takeit As was noted, the best and most effective wavelengths for metal engraving and cutting are 1,064 nm and it's harmonics at 532 nm and 355 nm. (edit: I should note that you can "mark" metals on our 30 watt machine if you use the slowest possible setting and do it like 10 times, but it's pretty weak, and is not what I'd call "engraved".)

Obviously, this means for a beginner's homebrew, 532 nm green lasers are probably what you want to go with. That said, we're still talking hefty amounts of power here. I know it's possible with 12 watts of 532 nm, but I haven't tried with a lower power one. Maybe someone can chime in with a test of one of decent power?

A-J