Check out fiber lasers, John.
Laser Engraving in Steel
What & Where would I look for to find a shop that engraves lettering into steel that would be about 1mm deep ?
The local sign shops in my area only engrave or cut thin wood and plastics - no steel.
(The items I have have no markings to cover up - this will be new engraving). The chatter on the gun forums is all over the map with very few photos that are under ten years old. LOTS of laser work on the wood portions of the firearms but not actually into the metal itself.
![Line Material property Rectangle Font Gun accessory]()
Note: Only the laser engraving is open for discussion - not anything about the weapon itself.
The local sign shops in my area only engrave or cut thin wood and plastics - no steel.
(The items I have have no markings to cover up - this will be new engraving). The chatter on the gun forums is all over the map with very few photos that are under ten years old. LOTS of laser work on the wood portions of the firearms but not actually into the metal itself.
Note: Only the laser engraving is open for discussion - not anything about the weapon itself.
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David, that is still a magnitude difference. 
Prices have really become affordable even if the tools are entry level junk but still work. This is what's crazy where home manufacturing is really a thing to a certain extent. You can buy a CO2 or diode laser starting for ~$300 or less and now you can buy a fiber laser starting for $3K. To be able to engrave 1mm in one go (50W+) in steel you still are looking at $8-10K but that is still an insanely cheap cost compared to just a decade ago.
I bought my K40 for around $500 with an upgraded digital controller ($700) around 8 years ago.
So cnc, laser, and 3d printing technologies are all available to regular folks at a relative affordable cost.
Prices have really become affordable even if the tools are entry level junk but still work. This is what's crazy where home manufacturing is really a thing to a certain extent. You can buy a CO2 or diode laser starting for ~$300 or less and now you can buy a fiber laser starting for $3K. To be able to engrave 1mm in one go (50W+) in steel you still are looking at $8-10K but that is still an insanely cheap cost compared to just a decade ago.I bought my K40 for around $500 with an upgraded digital controller ($700) around 8 years ago.
So cnc, laser, and 3d printing technologies are all available to regular folks at a relative affordable cost.
This one is a fiber laser, only for metal. I thought it was 50 watts, but it turns out it is only 30 watts. I was doing this experiment, thinking ... "It should do more than that!" Then I found the settings in the layers menu. I was only running it at 60% power and too fast. I set it to 100% power and slowed down the speed, and my aluminum black anodized business card warped from the heat. I did some deeper engraving. I am happy. This wasn't a $300.00 laser. this one was $3,500.00
Joe
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