Every once in a while you stumble into a side project that ends up being more interesting than the thing you set out to do. This is one of those.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been quietly running tests in the MakerSpace on something I’ve been calling our “secret topper” — a process for getting color to engrave into metal with a laser. Not the usual black Cermark mark. Actual color.
Where the Idea Came From
If you’ve been following along, you know we sold our sublimation printer a while back and moved to DTF for apparel. The printer was gone, but we still had a pile of sublimation supplies sitting in the MakerSpace — blanks, coated substrates, the works. I’ve been repurposing the hardboard panels for straight laser engraving, which has worked out great.
Then one afternoon I was looking at a can of Cermark Ultra — the metal marking spray we use for laser engraving stainless steel, aluminum, and brass — and at our stash of sublimation coating, and my brain did the thing it does.
What if you could combine the Cermark Ultra process with some of the sublimation coated materials we had lying around to get color to fuse into the metal instead of just a black mark?
That’s the whole premise. Cermark Ultra gives you a permanent, bonded black mark when you laser-fire it on bare metal. Sublimation uses heat to gas-phase dye into a polymer coating. In theory, if you can get the right layering and the right laser pass, you should be able to drive pigment into the metal surface and have it stay there.
In theory.
What We’ve Actually Tried
I’m not going to lay out the exact recipe here — this is still in the experimental phase and there are a few combinations I want to protect until we figure out which one is actually production-ready. But here’s what the testing has looked like at a high level:
- Different base metals. Coated aluminum, bare stainless, brass — every metal reacts differently to the laser, the Cermark, and the color layer. Some are obvious non-starters. A couple are showing real promise.
- Different pigment sources. We’ve used a few types of colored engraving material to see which ones actually bond during the laser pass vs. just sitting on top and wiping away.
- Different laser settings. Power, speed, line interval, number of passes. Every one of these variables matters. Push the power too hard and you vaporize the color. Too soft and nothing transfers.
- Different cure/post-processing steps. Some samples go straight off the laser bed to a wipe-down. Others need a second step before the color locks in.
We’ve burned through a fair amount of scrap metal getting here, and I’m not going to pretend the early samples all looked great — a lot of them looked terrible. But after dialing things in over several sessions, we’re starting to hit combinations where the color is actually engraved into the metal and not just sitting on the surface. You can run your fingernail across it. You can wipe it with isopropyl. The color stays.
Why This Matters
If this actually works reliably — and I mean repeatable, production-quality results — it opens up a lot of doors for the custom side of the business. Colored logos on metal dog tags. Multi-tone engravings on keychains and bottle openers. Branded tumblers and flasks that don’t look like every other laser-engraved product on Etsy.
Right now, if you want color on metal, your options are basically:
- UV printing, which requires a separate five-figure machine and lays ink on top of the surface.
- Powder coating + laser ablation, which is a multi-step process that limits you to whatever colors you’ve already coated.
- Sublimation onto a pre-coated blank, which means you’re locked into the blanks the vendor sells and the color sits in a polymer layer, not the metal itself.
What we’re testing is a way to get color that’s in the metal, using equipment we already own — the Glowforge Pro, the heat press, and leftover sublimation material that would otherwise go in the scrap pile. No new capital expense. Just figuring out a process that shouldn’t technically work but apparently does.
What’s Next
More testing. A lot more testing. I want to:
- Nail down the exact laser settings per metal type so we can hand the recipe to someone else and get the same result.
- Stress-test the color durability — dishwasher, UV exposure, abrasion, the works. A process is only useful if the result actually lasts.
- Try a wider color range. Right now we’ve validated a handful of colors. I want to know the full palette.
- Figure out if this scales to larger pieces or if it’s better suited for small-format work like pendants, tags, and branding plates.
Once we’ve got something reliable, it’ll start showing up in our custom laser-cut merch lineup — and honestly, if the results hold up, I’ll probably write a more detailed follow-up post breaking down the process for other makers.
The whole thing is a perfect example of why I love the MakerSpace model. You’ve got a bunch of tools, you’ve got a bunch of leftover materials, and you’ve got the time to try dumb ideas until one of them isn’t dumb anymore. This one started as a “wait, what if…” and it’s turning into a real capability.
Follow along on Whatnot or check out our custom work page — once the process is dialed in, you’ll start seeing these pieces in our shows and in the shop.
— TechBinBytes