Laser Etching Anodized Aluminum
Intro: Laser Etching Anodized Aluminum
This Instructable will show you how to use a laser cutter to etch anodized aluminum. I live near a DIY workshop called TechShop - they have $1M worth of equipment that I can get access to for about $100 a month. One piece of equipment they have is the Epilog laser cutter. Etching aluminum with simple text or customized artwork is virtually as simple as printing on an inkjet printer.
STEP 1:
I start here with the blank, black, anodized aluminum faceplate for my DIY home power amplifier.
STEP 2:
Here is the machine I will use - an Epilog 45 Watt laser. Inside the laser is an 18" x 24" bed that holds whatever pieces you will be working on. This bed can be moved up or down, enabling you to laser etch materials or pieces of widely varying thickness.
The laser acts like a CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) router, using a laser beam to cut or etch your chosen material. In this case, since I am just etching simple text, it acts more like an inkjet printer, burning the text onto the aluminum, dot by dot, just as an inkjet printer does on paper.
The laser acts like a CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) router, using a laser beam to cut or etch your chosen material. In this case, since I am just etching simple text, it acts more like an inkjet printer, burning the text onto the aluminum, dot by dot, just as an inkjet printer does on paper.
STEP 3:
First, you place your piece in the far left corner. You insert a tool for focusing the laser as seen in the picture.
STEP 4:
You use the control panel on the front of the laser to do the focusing by setting the distance that the laser is above your material. You push the "focus" button on the front panel to enable the up and down buttons (up and down arrows next to the focus button). You then use the up arrow and down keys to adjust the work holding panel up or down, so that your material just touches the lens focus tool. You then remove the lens focusing tool and either set it aside, or you can mount it on top of the laser head assembly for storage. Finally, you hit the reset button on the front panel, which removes the laser from focus mode, moves the laser head assembly to its standard starting X/Y position ready to begin.
STEP 5:
Next you bring your file into a graphical editor, in this case CorelDRAW.
This front panel was actually designed in AutoCAD as part of a sheet metal design and imported into Coreldraw using a .dxf file. But you can start by doing your drawing entirely in CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator.
This front panel was actually designed in AutoCAD as part of a sheet metal design and imported into Coreldraw using a .dxf file. But you can start by doing your drawing entirely in CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator.
STEP 6:
Next, hit print like you would in any application. This brings up a typical windows print dialog box. Click on preferences. (Apologies if pictures are a bit blurry, I uploaded them at a high resolution).
In the upper left corner of this window, near the "E", set the mode to raster and 600 dpi (the laser cutter can also do vector art).
Next, set the power and speed that the laser cutter will use. On the upper right area, where the blue bars are, set the speed to 100% and the power to 90%. These settings come from a reference sheet supplied by TechShop that tells you exactly what settings to use for different kinds of lasering applications (if you were cutting through 1/8" acrylic, you would use very different settings, for example).
Finally, set the height and width of your material (middle bottom on screen - width is 16.25" and height is 6.25"). This tells the laser cutter the dimensions of your part so it knows exactly where to print the text.
In the upper left corner of this window, near the "E", set the mode to raster and 600 dpi (the laser cutter can also do vector art).
Next, set the power and speed that the laser cutter will use. On the upper right area, where the blue bars are, set the speed to 100% and the power to 90%. These settings come from a reference sheet supplied by TechShop that tells you exactly what settings to use for different kinds of lasering applications (if you were cutting through 1/8" acrylic, you would use very different settings, for example).
Finally, set the height and width of your material (middle bottom on screen - width is 16.25" and height is 6.25"). This tells the laser cutter the dimensions of your part so it knows exactly where to print the text.
STEP 7:
You click print, go to the laser cutter and swing the plexiglass cover down over the work area, and then push the Go button on the laser cutter front panel. The laser springs into action, etching my logo in just the same way as an inkjet printer would, dot by dot. The laser head assembly goes back and forth, line by line, firing a laser burst for each pixel it should.
The elapsed time of doing the etching was less than a minute.
The elapsed time of doing the etching was less than a minute.
STEP 8:
Here is the final result, a professional looking front panel (it looks like it was professionally silk screened) installed on the "Menard Audio" power amplifier.
12 Comments
TaiF3 8 years ago
You can always buy a cheap K40 laser for around 400 dollars shipped. It won't be nearly as nice as Epilog but it will do everything an Epilog will do. It has no DSP control however... and it does lack on safety (for example NO laser off if the cover were opened), and I'm having a little bit of trouble locating the starting point of the engraving (it led to some mispositioned stuff... Will need to add a laser pointer to help me with this...)
2 the max 7 years ago
FrankA62 7 years ago
I Have been a gunsmith for a couple years now and have had many customers ask about laser engraving on the lowers. any ideas on a system that is strong enough to etch or engrave on anodised lowers?
FrankA62 7 years ago
I Have been a gunsmith for a couple years now and have had many customers ask about laser engraving on the lowers. any ideas on a system that is strong enough to etch or engrave on anodised lowers?
John T MacF Mood 8 years ago
Love the project too, great work!
John T MacF Mood 8 years ago
With "average" anodizing, what laser strength would you most likely need?
A resist "sticker" with some etching chemical might work for those of us with hobby grade laser cutters.
weikertc1 8 years ago
I am curious, are you actually burning through the anodize surface? If that is the case, this would expose virgin aluminum surface underneath, hence potentially causing corrosion across the logo. You can imagine where I am going with this, but is that a concern (exposing aluminum that could corrode) if you made the etching large enough. That is a great result, btw! Very impressed
varitrapin 10 years ago
Hi,
I'm looking for a laser machine like this for my shop.
How much did this cost?
zoidbergface 9 years ago
amclaussen 12 years ago
That's a really nice one techshopdude!
Could you throw some (or a lot of!) light on your amplifier design and construction?
I love DIY audio, because I've been able to make some equipment that puts to shame some store bought onesmany times as expensive... :)
I'm in the process of multi-amplifying my setup, using 24dB/Oct electronic active Crossovers, in order to have a lot of flexibility when trying several different drivers, since one could easily match sensitivities and crossover frequencies/slopes etc.
Cheers. Amclaussen, Mexico City.
saratogadude 12 years ago
I used the the classic 3 stage class AB amplifier design you see in books like Douglas Self's "Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook".
The heat sinks are from Conrad Heat Sinks in Australia. The case was from a supplier in the US named Par-Metal. Switch from Lamptron. Back connectors bought on ebay. Toroidal transformer from Plitron in Canada.
Too much to describe to make an Instructable though maybe I'll try it piece by piece.
techshopdude
controlledwrinkles 12 years ago