lazer etching or engraving equipment

[Simon Paine]

I was thinking of getting my equipment laser etched or engraved for

identification / security purposes. Anyone have any experience doing

this ?

My main concern is with the depth at which they engrave and the

temperature the equipment may be exposed to during the process.

Specificaly my SM and MM series wireless transmitters. Anyone know of

a safe depth to engrave those, and will the temperature created by the

process damage the equipment ? I was thinking of doing the etching or

engraving above the part of the transmitter that surrounds the

battery, in order to minimize the chance of heat damaging the delicate

electronics.

Thanks.

[David Waelder]

take into consideration that you may want to sell your equipment in the future to upgrade it.

It's a valid point. It would be more difficult to sell something with a name already engraved in it. That's one of the reasons that I only engrave major pieces of gear like a recorder and my mixer. I reason that I will probably keep those until they no longer have any significant resale value anyway. (I tend not to rotate gear very much and still have not only my Fostex PD-4 but also my Nagra IV-S.)

I should think that the engraving process ought to be safe although I might not want to test the theory on a microphone immediately adjacent to the active capsule. After all, Apple offers engraving on the ipods and I don't think they would do that if the electronics were in any way endangered by the process.

David Waelder

[Glen Trew]

I was thinking of getting my equipment laser etched or engraved for

identification / security purposes. Anyone have any experience doing

this ?

Thanks.

For what it's worth, I would suggest sticking to stickers and relying on the supplied serial numbers. I think about all the Nagra analog recorders I've seen with names, driver's license numbers, etc, etc, etched onto those beautiful machines... not a pretty sight. While that's just a personal opinion, I can say with certainty that it significantly reduced their resale value.

gt

[studiomprd]

there are a couple of factors to consider; some have already been mentioned, like resale value, and even appearance.  Theft recovery is also a factor, though a new sticker could cover the old engraving, so I like to hide a sticker inside when I can. I figure that stickers will insure that if my gear is "found" it will get returned to me, and that has been the case, especially with Walkies (which were engraved with a toll free phone number!)

as for the Lectro SM's & MM's, they are Teflon coated for corrosion resistance, which means stickers usually do not stick well, but engraving will corrupt the protection the coating offers.