Laser engraving a titanium frame

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on getting a Ti frame engraved? I love my Amazon but the deals are pretty poor quality and I figured this would be a longer lasting option.

Engima are useuly pretty good at this kind of thing

Think it’s easy enough,my old Ti frame was from a bike builder in thatlondon and he asked me what I wanted on it before I picked it up .

I was planning to get my Van Nich done as well BTW.
Those decals come off if you look at them too hard 🙄
I will have a search round and let you know if I find anyone.

edit ( up in Jockland)

Any pics ? 😀

fasthaggis – might be worth keeping in touch to see if we can get both done at the same time?

Its going to have to be a big laser engraver. We have quite a large one, the bed is 900mm x 600mm. There is no way you could get a frame in there.
Some models of engraver have the option to have the item sticking out one side. Frame builders may have the laser marking done before joining the tubes? You could try chemical etching (not sure how well Titanium etches though) if you have no luck with laser marking.

True dat ( as they say)

I will try some engineering contacts in Glenrothes that do anodising for us and let ya know.

Failing that ,I was going to go for some harder wearing vinyl, made up at the local sign writers. They reckon they can copy any font style.

The normal way to put logos on titanium is via grit blasting.

either polish the area and then stick some masks on and grit blast the whole frame

or

polish the frame and then put a reverse mask on and grit blast the exposed bit.

That is how Enigma, Lynksey etc all seem to do their logos if not using stickers.

I’m not sure what grit they use – might be wallnut shells as it is a lot more gentle. Not sure I would want to use abrasive sand on a thin walled frame as it could perforate in seconds.

If you are going down the vinyl route get them to use a quality 9 to 10 year vinyl (Avery QM or 3M 220 if they have it)If it’s small text it will not last that long, get spares made whilst they are at it, so you can patch up any lost letters.

Isn’t there a process where titanium can be somehow etched leaving a nice multi-coloured iridescent finish just where the etched pattern/area is? Sure I’ve seen it somewhere…

There is! There is!!

Look pon!

More here.

Good idea Andyl ,blasting might be a lot easier.

Nice Pingus Elf 🙂

what is the finish at the moment?

Kinda polished

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