any ideas on an engraver for fountain pen nibs

[jj9ball]

I hope this is the correct place to put this. Can someone shed some light on the laser engraver being able/not able to engrave on metal. I would like to get one to custom engrave my own fountain pen nibs. It seems that about half the web sites say it will work half say they won't. If a laser engraver is not the correct way to go for this application I would love to know what is. I just assumed that a laser engraver would be the newest and best way to do it. I really only want to engrave on nibs and the logo would be fairly complex. Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

 

[duncsuss]

Jeff - there are two discussions about laser engravers active now over in the Shops, Jigs, Fixtures and Tools sub-forum. The one that might be most useful for your purposes is the "40W lasers discussion" thread that Carl Fisher started.

The small (1W or less) cheap units will not engrave metal. Nor will they function with the ceramic overlay (I think it's called Cermark) that calls for 25W or more.

 

[Sylvanite]

A CO2 laser (which is what most of us use) generally will not engrave metals. Laser-marking solutions such as Cermark and Thermark are not a good solution for a fountain pen nib.

A Nd:YAG laser (which is substantially more expensive) can engrave and cut many metals. I had always presumed that the factory nibs are scratch-engraved, but they could be using Nd:YAG lasers now.

Regards,
Eric

 

[Akula]

Acid etching has been around a long time. I have seen many fine detailed etchings. I'm not sure how it would do on a nib as most items I've seen are thicker. For the low costs involved, I don't see a negative..worse case you spend 1000's on a laser setup anyways.

Just a thought and nothing more

 

[drise]

If you are looking to engrave on metal you would probably need a laser like this
https://www.epiloglaser.com/products/fibermark-laser-series.htm. Epilog has an application lab so you can send them sample graphics and sample material and they will tell you if it will work. The fibermark laser even has a 3 jaw chuck as an accessory. The laser is kind of pricey though.

 

[BRobbins629]

Check out meisternibs.com They offer custom engraving although there are minimum quantities. On their site there is a tab for custom nibs.