Starrett 465M micrometer head.

[Graeme SeedParticipant @graemeseed34272]

Hi All, can anyone recommend a laser etching company that can etch sizes, lines etc on a 2.5″ diameter circular barrel?

This superb? mic has just one disappointing fault. shame really, as Starrett are one of the best.

The barrel is finished with satin chrome and its peeling off. Barrel is made of stainless and the underneath is black. They are made of aluminium these days, Photos added.

The horizontal 0-25mm markings are slowly disappearing, so, if I can find an etcher locally to Huddersfield area or even in the whole of  the UK, THAT WOULD BE GREAT. I intend to clean it up, taking all the old markings off, send a sketch of what was there with measurements and have the markings redone on shiney stainless. It won’t need recoating with anything. I think that etching leaves black letters/numbers.

I’ve contacted several companies from Google but they don’t seem to be interested in one offs.

 

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi I have just had a die I am making to press a brass disk to produce angle indicator by 3D Lasertec Mansfield.

Worth a try  [email protected]

 

David

 

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

I could well be wrong, but the silver areas may well be anodised? If so then stripping and re anodising would be a solution. Depends if the base material is aluminium.

Difficult to tell is the affected areas are rusty from the photo.

Andrew.

[Graeme SeedParticipant @graemeseed34272]

Hi Andrew, It will be stainless, too heavy for aluminium. No rust present, tries a scrape of the black part and it didn’t show a shine. Graeme.

[Graeme SeedParticipant @graemeseed34272]

Hi David, thanks for the address. I contacted them and very friendly person. They need a CAD drawing, but I don’t have anything like that, so I’ll have to send sizes as a sketch. Photos they need too. They can do it and the interest is there, so wonderful. I’ll keep you posted. Graeme. ps good luck with your project.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Graeme

Are you sure its stainless steel?

Its unusual to have matt chromium plating on SS, most (all maybe) micrometer barrels and sleeves that I’ve seen were plain carbon steel (plated).

If it is chrome plated then my thinking would be to have the plating removed (sort of reversed electroplating) and since the original plating will have been done after the part was engraved, ‘unplating’ will leave the engraved markings the same depth as they were originally so the part could plated again.

Looking at your picture again and seeing how the plating has become detached in sections between the engraved marks would seem to point to a manufacturing defect rather than normal wear and tear. Starrett are good, but not perfect.

Ian P

[Graeme SeedParticipant @graemeseed34272]

Hi Ian P, thanks for your comments. Agreed, mics are carbon steel mostly and magnetic. This, my inner sleeve is not magnetic and,yes, there are some types of carbon steel that are non magnetic. I  strongly agree about a manufacturing fault as there’s  another of this model on ebay which describes the same fault. Nowadays Starrett still make this model and another that has reversed numbers added on the barrel although they have different letters after the model number. They state that they are made from aluminium to save on weight!! I asked Google if this model was ever made of stainless, answer—Yes.They also state that  previous models are exactly the same sizes as these newer ones, so compatability comes to light. My friend in the USA is trying to contact Starrett for a replacement part but they seem very slow to answer anything. I’m progressing David’s mention and see what costs are involved. Thanks. Graeme.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Another option would be to take a very light skim cut to remove the scale then re-engrave it.  Though I’ve never tried it certainly I can engrave on cylindrical shapes on my little CNC with rotary axis.  I guess that carbide cutters should work, of which I have quite a few used for PCB engraving.  Maybe someone with similar facilities but experience could do this for you?  (So far I’ve used this for engraving knurls.)

[Graeme SeedParticipant @graemeseed34272]

Hi John, thanks for your wonderful knurling adventure. I’m sending info to the engraving firm today to get a cost etc. I’ll then skim the barrel and polish and send to them. The lines are 0.002 mm wide to allow a 0.001mm eyeline measurement. A laser can achieve this. Graeme.

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