Marking brass

[Ledzep]

I win.

 

[Newbie2020]

That’s cool. And funny.

 

[iceng]

You spelt "im not a poor" wrong.

 

[anotherwannabe]

That’s pretty redic - tell us about the laser and spinner setup!

 

[Ledzep]

That’s pretty redic - tell us about the laser and spinner setup!

It's a "cheap" OMTech 30W fiber laser with the rotary axis, and a cut-off section of the shell holder from a Hornady manual case trimmer. Text is just under .08" tall right above the extractor groove. I'm going to fire/resize test a batch of them in the following weeks but from the other fired cases I have, that area should get minimal "rub" from the chamber and dies and hopefully lasts the lifetime of the case.

Otherwise it's great for caliber markings, tumblers, pet tags, Form 1 markings, slide engravings, I want to try some BDC turrets eventually, etc... So many projects so little time...

 

[Lefty315]

What is the run time for each piece of brass ?

 

[Ledzep]

I got it down to about 7.5s ea.

 

[accurate obsession]

That is way cool, hands down.
But, at a match, in the dirt, how recognizable is your brass from all the waste brass?

 

[iceng]

We have established he is no poor, so he doesnt pickup range brass like the rest of us slobs. He just loads more and engraves them to flex on us.

 

[Ledzep]

That is way cool, hands down.
But, at a match, in the dirt, how recognizable is your brass from all the waste brass?

Couldn't say yet, I've only marked a few so far. I'm going to test around with them this week.

 

[anotherwannabe]

How deep do you guess you're engraving and how high up the case webb are you going? Theoretically too much of either could result in structural problems.

 

[OREGUN]

I shoot regularly with a guy who does this. It seems to work fine for finding his brass. He goes horizontal up the case. Looks cool. Primo flex.

 

[Ledzep]

How deep do you guess you're engraving and how high up the case webb are you going? Theoretically too much of either could result in structural problems.

Not deep at all, maybe a thou or two. The wall is thick enough there that fired cases don't obturate that far back to seal against the chamber wall.

 

[Krob95]

I shoot regularly with a guy who does this. It seems to work fine for finding his brass. He goes horizontal up the case. Looks cool. Primo flex.

One of the guys that helps put on a match around me does this too. Being as this isn't a super common thing, its probably the same guy you know.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Sweet way to anneal the base of the the the brass.

Being able to hang a fingernail is about 3 Thou, which is also ATF min for marking.

 

[308pirate]

How deep do you guess you're engraving and how high up the case webb are you going? Theoretically too much of either could result in structural problems.

LOLOLOL

His engraving is as shallow as it gets, just by looking at it it's in the .005" range (yes I've setup and ran laser engravers). As long as it's not on the case side walls there will be ZERO effect on structural integrity.

 

[308pirate]

Sweet way to anneal the base of the the the brass.

Annealing has a time and temperature component. That brass cross section has not had the time to get anywhere close to transition temp.

 

[iceng]

If you can touch it with your willy, its not too hot.

Also, if your barrel is too hot to put your willy on it, stop shooting.

 

[Cynical]

I win.

View attachment 7953956


View attachment 7953957

I like it, but I’m going to need your settings. Freq and power, hatch and passes?

 

[Mr. Z]

If you can touch it with your willy, its not too hot.

Also, if your barrel is too hot to put your willy on it, stop shooting.

Are we talking the calloused parts or no?

 

[Ledzep]

I like it, but I’m going to need your settings. Freq and power, hatch and passes?

.05mm hatch (open ended one works best for rotating parts), speed was set to 2000, 100% power, 5 passes, frequency at 70.
Rotation is set at 3mm spacing. Text is 2mm tall, and length of the text block is 2mm less than circumference of the case.

It's not the cleanest engraving ever-- set up for speed not for pretty. With part changes its about 10s each.

Cases aren't warm to the touch when they come off, the annealing gradient is a negligible percentage of the wall thickness, and again, it is where it is specifically because that surface is never under enough stress to obturate and touch the chamber wall.

 

[iceng]

Sounds retarded, but if you offered a service of like, $10 per 100 cases, and $20 "one off setup fee", to make a drawing, text, punisher skull*, for new drawings, you would do well.

*If you do punisher skull, ill stab you in the dick hole with the large end of a 50bmg cartridge. Just dont.

 

[Ledzep]

For sure, I'm playing with the idea of offering it as a service. I'm going to test it out for myself for a while and make sure it's durable enough, but I'm sure there are a few folks out there that would pay $0.15-0.20 a case (about the ballpark I need to make it worth my time) to never have to do the sharpie crap again. I'm pretty sure I can even sequentially number the cases for the OCD types, or put a phone number if someone finds the case after the match and wants to hook a dude up.

 

[iceng]

Im autist as balls. Not even i serialise my cases.. yet.

Thanks. You just ruined my life..

Hook a dude up. Nohomo..

 

[CNC-Dude]

How does the etching hold up to abrasive tumblers or metal pins.....?

 

[Ledzep]

Don't know yet. I'll hopefully be able to shoot a few of these this weekend and run them through a few cycles.