An engraving is written in stone. Engrave a piece of jewelry and it’s written in metal, right? Metal jewelry already looks good enough by itself, but with an engraving, it somehow becomes even more stunning.
For a purchase as expensive as a laser engraver for metal, you need to be careful about which engraver you buy. One little engraving slip-up on the family heirloom and it’s forever ruined.
Prevent a permanent mistake by vetting engravers. Discover six questions to ask before buying an engraver by reading on.
Table of Contents
1. How Powerful Is the Laser?
The laser’s power matters, so ask how powerful the laser is. Purchase a laser that has at least 25 watts of power.
It should also have air assist. This is a laser engraving attachment that blows a jet of compressed air over the engraving surface at the burning point to reduce flare and make clean, deep engravings. Most lasers will have air assist.
The size of the engraving bed matters, too. The bigger the bed, the better.
2. Is There a Red Dot?
Does the engraver have a red dot that says where to engrave or cut? It should have a laser pointer you can turn on to project a red dot where the laser will engrave.
Turn the laser’s power off, turn the red dot on, and run the file. Note that the red dot is better suited for vector lines than engravings.
3. How Does Engraving Work?
Any knowledgeable seller of an engraver should be able to tell you how the product works.
With laser engraving, the laser removes metal from the solid surface. A high-intensity laser beam is driven by the high pulse power of the fiber laser. That allows you to engrave logos, texts, serial numbers, and more into the material.
You’ll end up with brown areas of metal oxides (rust) that are then cleaned with polishing parameters. This is all done through low-frequency, high-power engraving.
4. What Parameters for Engraving Are There?
Deep laser engraving has two kinds of parameters: quality-optimized and time-optimized. Using the former to hit the same engraving depth as the latter takes three times as long.
5. What Are Time-Optimized Parameters?
Time-optimized laser parameters are used to make an engraving as fast as possible. The quality of the engraving doesn’t matter here. Speed is king.
6. What Are Quality-Optimized Laser Parameters?
These are meant to be used for high-quality deep engraving. The seller should be able to tell you which laser parameters are used to get the highest quality engraving depth.
This method takes three times as long as time-optimized parameters, but it doesn’t result in any warping. Quality is the highest priority here.
Check out some top-notch laser engraving.
Finding a Laser Engraver for Metal
Knowledgeable, helpful sellers should be able to point you toward the laser engraver for metal that’s right for you and your jewelry. With an item as expensive as jewelry, you don’t want to mess it up. The right engraver can mean the difference between unblemished perfection or warped, rusted jewelry.
See how to beautify other objects in your life in the site’s Lifestyle section.
