stratmando wrote:Here's a $100 Laser engraver, I'M sure more Money will get better quality, and or more reliable?
Cheaper end laser engravers are not safe in my opinion. These are low end Chinese made product with minimal eye protection. It only takes a split second to blind you for life with these high powered lasers.
They are fine for wood or other material surfaces where it absorbs the laser light. On nickel plated blanks, the surface reflects light and require higher power to engrave the surface. The higher power levels would be more dangerous. The typical low end system requires safety glasses and that is the only protection for the users. People in the vicinity of the machine would all require to put on safety glasses to be safe. On the more expensive systems, there are safety shields and enclosures.
If cost is a problem and you want to use a CNC system, you can buy very low cost CNC system that uses MACH3 or MACH4 software to generate the engraving letters. The main problem is to make a fixture to clamp the key to the CNC table and allow the cutter to engrave without contacting the fixture. It can be done with clamps, but a precision vise would provide better repeatability. You can buy these lower end CNC system for much less than $500 for a complete system. However, they are more like toys than industrial use machines.