The paint stripping worked remarkably well.
I also tried using some dry moly lube as an engraving agent. This also works well. The laser can't touch metal, the metal acts like a mirror unless much more powerful than I have.
Using the laser to strip paint.
One pass doesn’t do a great job, but the 2nd pass does.
I did a test with a quarter of the tin at different number of passes. Top is 4, bottom is 1 pass. There is a cut across just to check the pass count.
Two passes at this speed and power.
I burned the tin to darken it. I also used moly lube to label it. I accidently labeled the wrong side.
Interesting. I thought I understood this but I'm going to have to go back to the books. Thanks!
I can't find a reference as to exactly what is happening to the molybdenum disulfide. I don't know if I am sintering it to the surface or if the heat from the laser is speeding up the atom swapping and I am effectively creating an alloy at the surface.