BikeMike's White Tile Method

Yes, craft paint.

Apologies for the late response. Work and all that. To answer your question; No lol. It will engrave black although once it did have a blue tint to it.

An idea I am working on for the cheaper Mica dyes. I mixed white Littarby dye with the Let’s Resin dye and had enough time to spray the tile. Not enough to actually try engraving on it.

so i was able to spray the TiO2 mixed with Tempera paint using an HVLP and it was nice and smooth but first atempt there was not enough TiO2 in the mix went back and sprayed a two coats on a tile but was not able to get to use it yesterday. going to do a power and speed test on it today. I know people do not like the Tempera paint but I personally have had great luck getting it smooth spraying it with the harbor freight detail spray gun. Now i believe it is just a matter of getting the mix down. i will show my results, fingers crossed

So I did some testing using temera paint in tile it took t o good coats. I used a hvlp small detail spray gun. With Ti02 water and tempera mix.





You can see how much darker the Ti02 is compared to white paint. And I didn’t realize how much cleaner it is when you do a burn.

So I read the Ron’s thread and then this one in complete fascination :smiley: I’ve had some great results with engraving Slate, but that’s just lasering on a dark surface.

So now I’ve got a batch of TiO2 coming in and I’m excited to try! (will pick up some tiles and craft paint from the shops)

My question is - has anyone tried the fluorescent paint additive stuff? Like this sort of thing? (amazon.de link).

It seems like the same process as with TiO2 would work here as well… perhaps even adding this WITH Titox in the mix? I’ve ordered a small bag and will test it

My worry is that the laser process will just destroy whatever light capturing/luminosity properties the powder has… but they’re supposed to be good up to 1000 degrees C, so maybe not!

The TiO2 makes a molecular bond to the material… does this have something in it like TiO2?

Most of these either use paint with TiO2 or water, tempera, alcohol…


Take a few (:face_with_spiral_eyes:) and read this one… it’s a tad long

This is one of a cat, 6x6" porcelain tile, done with LBT100 on the fiber laser… I have a very similar one done with TiO2…

Looking forward to your photos…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

Yeah, I read through that entire thread, it was really interesting seeing how the process developed, it’s what inspired me to try it, hehe

I don’t think there’s any metal in the fluorescent powder, that’s why I was planning on mixing it with the TiO2, hopefully enough remains exposed to provide the fluorescent effect after.

If it doesn’t work there’s definitely the option of cutting deeper and mixing it with clear acrylic and painting it, which is the intended use of it

I doubt it will tolerate a couple thousand degrees, but I don’t know… it would have to stick to the TiO2 to work and I’d think it would change it’s state… TiO2 is white and turns black when heated…

You will have to try it and let us know…

Numerous people have taped up the object, engraved it, peeled off the tape in the areas they want painted or filled with epoxy. They they can apply it and use the remaining tape to keep it off the other areas… They just have to peel off the remaining tape when done…

Good luck… lots of people watching… :wink:

:smile_cat:

Id like to see the outcome. It would be cool if it did. I know some do the powdercoat after engraving usihng the laser to melt it in the groove. It cant hurt to try and see what works. let us know how it comes out.

Picked up some of this at harbor freight for ~$8… Hoping to try and mix it with something to hold it in place when I lase it… It’s designed to be applied to metal with a high voltage system that causes it to stick…


This guy solved it, as you mentioned by engraving, then filling the engraving with powder coating, then lasing again at a lower power gave pretty good results… Here’s his video if you haven’t seen it.

He has had good results with wood and acrylic, but not much else… even the fiber doesn’t react properly with the powder coating… It could be settings with the fiber…

Shows you the real limitations with a laser are in your own head :wink:

My co2 is disassembled right now so I can’t actually do it… :grimacing:

:smile_cat:

I’m not getting my TiO2 until tomorrow! (most likely Wednesday, because unless I’m really lucky there will be nobody home tomorrow to accept the parcel, so I’ll have to pick it up myself…)

I picked up some tiles today, excited to start experimenting :smiley:

Ok, so I finally had the time to sit down and do it - trying just the paint + TiO2 first… I think I got my mixing wrong? When using a brush you can clearly see the brush marks left, I think it’s too thick? Or is that how it’s supposed to be? Should I have a nice, smooth even coat?

I think I bought too fancy craft acrylic, lol

I got the fluorescent stuff as well… unfortunately I didn’t fully check things, so it’s granules, not a powder. I’m looking for ways to turn the granules into powder, but I might be better served just getting actual powder for testing…

I thin it down with water so it is a bit thinner and flows out after 10 or 15 min sitting flat. Needs a light touch with the brush. Pretty easy to wash off if it is to thick, or to thin for that matter.

I used the recipe… perhaps I added too much Titanium. Running a material test now, I’ll try thinning it out more so the water drains off

Not so the water drains off, just enough so it flows smooth after 15 min.

Yeah, that’s what I meant, sorry.

I stopped the first tile because the results were both good and bad. Clearly my testing parameters were waaaay too strong. The 60% power where I stopped it is significantly depressed in the material :smiley:



Going to run the second tile with better testing parameters

Second tile has much better results! Still a bit too much power (there’s very little gradient, it seems like. Need to run more granular tests, perhaps)

Before and after cleaning it up - I really went at it with a scrubbing sponge (and used toothpaste, that’s the gentlest scrubbing I have… I’m happy with the results!


And some detail photos:





I’ve got two other tiles drying, I’m excited to dry photos and art on them!

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First photos on tile! I’m happy with the quality, though you can see I didn’t have an even, smooth coating

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Hello, new here. I have already tried the NWT method with alcohol and TIO2, but now I would like to try this method.

I used cheap white paint, 25g Tap water and 29.25g TIO2, equivalent to 3 13g spoons (if I did it all in a small gramera)

As a result I obtained a thick mixture.
To paint I used a sponge brush. Attach picture.

Before using the laser I want to check if those lines that were left are okay or should I paint again?

I was playing with colors before, but I want to improve my blacks

Thank you all :smile:

You should add more water so it will (or should) flow out to a nice even coat. Takes a little longer to dry, but you will get better results.