Thinking about getting a cheap 5W or 10W laser etcher/engraver to mark and number my mags

Any experiences?

Will it work on clear mags like LANCER and ETS? Metal?

Is there another recommended route, like a sort of mechanical etch tool on the head, instead?

Works on translucent, black polymer, metal, etc. magazines. (I use silver on the black mags).

I use colored sharpie on all my non 556/308 mags.  Helps me sort easily to see a 300BO or 450Bushmaster mag.

I have laser engraved mags. It will work but if they are hard use, you will wear them down.

Thanks for the reply.  

That's my problem with sharpee - it's not exactly sharp and professional looking - but worse, it wears off pretty quick.  Was hoping a laser engraved route would do better, but apparently that wears down too?  

I will say, in further investigation, it doesn't appear that laser engravers work so good on clear/translucent mags, nor on metal mags - which most of mine actually are.  Thousand dollar higher wattage units might do better, but was hoping this was something that could be satisfied by the $150 home hobbyist units.  Right now, that's not looking so good.  Though, I don't know if there's a common material one can overlay, that will become reactive and stain in a resilient manner, under a laser.  Like if you lay a piece of paper on top, will that micro-scorch and "burn in" the engraving on clear plastic, or something along those lines.  Haven't looked.

I'm beginning to think the other route might be to use an actual mechanical engraver.  Like a dremel head on a 3d printer, or something like that.  I don't have any of that, so again, unsure if that's really an option for that <$200 home-hobbies level...  

It has the potential to be a neat project and capability and something to play with, but right now, I'm not so sure a basic 5W unit is really going to satisfy the goal with my inventory of Lancer and ETS clear mags, or metal GI and E-Lander mags.

I use a P-Touch label maker to mark magazines.

Yea yea - I have one and sometimes use it.  But that's a sticker.  Was trying to do something cool like permeinant etcing.... while throwing on a bikini model or mudflp girls too, or some clever whitty shit off the internet.

I have to say...screen name does NOT check out.

Oil based paint pen works well.

You could try this stuff:




I've got a can of it but haven't tried it on anything yet so can't really vouch for it.

Wow.

That looks like exactly what I was asking after - I didn't know that even existed; I just made up the asking.

Hmmm... intersting.

Thanks for this - good post!

Do you have any clear plastic magazines to try it on?  As well as metal?

I would mask off the portion of the magazine that fits into the magazine well of an AR15 or AR10 style rifle, and spray paint the lower portion of the magazine.  Even if/when some of the paint wears off, there is plenty of paint left to identify the various magazines.

Colors I have used:
OD green
Sand
Black
light green
brown

No clear plastic, but I have some metal mags and could fool around with it in the next few days sometime - just buried under backlogged projects at the moment.  Will see what I can do!

A laser engraver works great on aluminum mags.  A coworker did a few for me.

A pantograph engraver.  A Brady label.  A spring-loaded diamond engraver in a CNC milling machine or router.

To my later regret I electro-penciled markings on magazines.  The 3 decades old solution of using a P-Touch label maker still works.

Paladin

Why the regret?  Unsightly appearance of a free-hand engraving?