Laser Marking Steel – the dry moly lube way
After finding out about this channel, and watching a few of his videos, I happily found out that there is a cheaper alternative to Cermark (which is about 100 euro where I am based for 300ml). The alternative is DM-90 Dry Film Molybdenum Disulphide Lubricant. And the really good news is, that it’s only about 12 euro for 500ml. So I decided to try it out.
Sadly I didn’t have a lot of flat steel worthy of engraving in the workshop, but a HDD cover worked for the first test. Here’s what I did:
- Clean surface with paint thinner
- Apply a coat of DM-90
- Wait until it dries a bit (surface is matte)
- Apply a second coat
- Wait again
- Laser etch
- Clean with paint thinner
I tried 40, 50, 100 and 200mm/s at 35% power (about 18mA on a 40W tube). The results, in my opinion were remarkable. After cleaning it up and calming down, the next thing I did was take a screw driver and try to damage the etching. Surprisingly it barely had any effect as you can see:
We were in business now, so I started looking for the next thing to engrave. My eyes fell on my workshop buddy’s Swiss Army Knife. He decided on the Iron Cross.
Next I did my caliper. Of course, the oily caliper I forgot to clean with paint thinner… So the spray didn’t bond as well to the surface in some areas…
Next, are some awesome knives from a friend who is a knife ‘enthusiast’. You can check out his channel here. So stay tuned for those.
Do you know of other alternative sprays? i can’t get the DM90 in Denmark for some reason.
I don’t… I’m sorry… Maybe you should search for dry lubricant containing molybdenum dysulphide..
thanks for sharing, i am interested to use Dry Moly Lube on either Aluminum alloy or Stainless steel (engrave wording), btw which material has the best result? Thanks.
It will not work on alu