Can this be laser engraved on alumilite blanks?

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alinc100

alinc100

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Feb 22, 2011
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Location
Dearborn,MI,USA
Hi All,
I've been recently getting back into penturning after about 10 years away from it. Semi-retirement is allowing me to start 'doing' things I said I would. Alot has changed, many ,many new things. I'm planning to focus on pen kits from McKenzie Pen Works ,as I like the idea of SS and USA made kits. My nephew opened a business recently and I hope to surprise him with some hand crafted pens. I've ordered some great looking Alumilite blanks in red, white and blue. The pic below is my nephew's logo. Could it be lasered onto a pen kit such as the Liberty ? Thanks in Advance,Andy
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Depending on which laser you have it is possible. I've engraved on the clip of a Liberty kit with my RolyAutomation diode laser. That logo may be too big for the clip, but certainly what is on each side of the red line could be done on the clip. It is also possible to get slightly different colors, but it wouldn't be as dramatic as the contrast between the red and blue. Other diode lasers may not have the same capabilities, but recently IR lasers have come out which can engrave metals so you could look into those. (Both Rolyautomation and XTool offer them) I don't believe either the diode or IR lasers can engrave alumalite.

It may be possible to engrave alimalite with a CO2 laser but I've no experience with that.
 
yes - I have Chinese 40W and I engrave alumilite. I put blue tape over the area to be engraved to prevent melting or overburn for wood. I usually fill alumilite engraving with a color fill.
I would test on a scrap piece to make sure it comes out the way I want.
 
keithbyrd said:
yes - I have Chinese 40W and I engrave alumilite. I put blue tape over the area to be engraved to prevent melting or overburn for wood. I usually fill alumilite engraving with a color fill.
I would test on a scrap piece to make sure it comes out the way I want.
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Isn't there a danger of poisonous fumes when engraving man made materials? It would be interesting to know if fume toxicity is different for different engraved materials, such as acrylic, rhinoplasitic, aluminite, etc. I have a Muse 3D 40 W and only engrave wood pen blanks for fear of poisonous fumes.
 
I have learned alumilite needs to be colorfilled to see most engravings. I have done a few with a 5w laser it engraves but does not darken the engraving.
 
Smokey S said:
I have no experience with lasers. The project appears to be perfect for label casting. Check out some of John Underwood's label cast alumalite blanks at Exotic Blanks. Just saying…….Smokey😎😃
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The last YouTube Live from Exotic Blanks featured John Underwood and Mike Dreyer doing some pretty nice label casts. They went through design to completion on the video. I would also think a good label cast would be ideal - allows all the colors to come through and would be durable - I just wouldn't use Alumilite for the resin, as it tends to yellow with time. I would use the resin Tim McKenzie was selling instead - it has better UV inhibitors in it and is almost as easy to cast as Alumilite. Tim stopped selling it, but it is still available from Thermoset - https://www.mckenziepenworks.com/collections/thermoset-urethane-clear-casting-resin
 
jcm71 said:
Isn't there a danger of poisonous fumes when engraving man made materials? It would be interesting to know if fume toxicity is different for different engraved materials, such as acrylic, rhinoplasitic, aluminite, etc. I have a Muse 3D 40 W and only engrave wood pen blanks for fear of poisonous fumes.
Click to expand...
I wasn't aware of that but I do exhaust the fumes outside!
 
Small update. I happened to get a call from a former co-worker. He was cleaning a construction yard and found a truckload of hardwood. Sadly I had to decline as I currently have no space for more wood. He has a laser. I don't know all the details of it ,but we are planning a few test runs on alumilite and on the new cardboard shipping/presentation boxes shipping with McKenzie Pen kits. We are going to attempt to etch my nephew's logo onto the cardboard as I've built/finished the pens. The other test is I left an alumilite blank oversized we can test with, refine results and resize the blank and try again.
 
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