I have a 40W diode laser. I want to etch a design into the back of an aftermarket replacement iPod back. I believe these are some kind of stainless steel with a coating but details from the seller are sparse. It appears to be a polished mirror finish. Is it possible to etch into something like this with my machine without messing up the tool head? When I was in school, they had a bunch of CO2 lasers and one of the rules was to never cut mirrored acrylic unless it was face down because it could reflect the beam back into the tool head and destroy it. I assume the same thing would happen with a polished surface like this.
I’ve read about marking sprays and it seems like that would work since that’s blocking the reflections from the steel? Although, those seem to leave a high-contrast black mark and I’m curious if there’s a way to just remove the gold coating to reveal bare stainless steel underneath instead.
I’m also curious if 2W IR lasers can do this kind of thing without a marking spray? (And without messing up the tool head)
These components are pretty thin too, so warping due to heat might be something I have to consider as well. From what I’ve read so far, it sounds like I can deal with that by running multiple passes at higher speed, allowing heat to dissipate in between passes.
I’ll probably buy a second one of these components to run tests on but the real estate is small so any tips could help save me from a headache!