Thank you!
Having no luck at all. I strongly suspect that my ‘mica powder dye’ is a false Chinese product. I appears to dissolve in alcohol and clog my airbrush. Where do you source your “litarary mica powder” ?
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Hi! Amazon. I’ll see if I can find the link.
I start with small amounts and thicken it a tiny spoonful at at time.
Littarby Metallic Powder is what I use. Apologies for the misspelling.
Are you successfully fusing this mica with the TD onto the ceramic tiles?
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I have had horrible luck with norton not sure if its my laser or picture prep or what. I can engrave picture in wood or painted tile fine but norton always a fail. I tried mikes method a couple times, I used an HVLP to spray, its what i use for Tempera paint for glass and acrylic and i get nice smooth coverage. the issue is all i get is water beads even after multiple coats.
has anyone tried using white Tempera paint with Titanium Oxide? it washes off easy mixes with what well seems like it would be a great medium. I am going try this weekend and see what happens.
I have terrible luck with tempera paint. I find the coverage is not very good at all.
The acrylic seems to be a better coat and holds the TIO2 just fine if mixed well.
Black acrylic craft paint gives me fantastic results on glass.
Acrylic washes off easy with hot water, cold seems to wash off in small sheets.
I stopped using image-r to get the Norton to work. Just bringing the image into lightburn and adjusting from there.
Made a batch and used some settings I got for a ntm method with a fiber laser. Got some dark spots, but it looks like I don’t have enough TiO2 mixed into the final mixture. In general the results were not anything that gave me much of a clue on how to correct it. I ran a materials test and it would burn up a spot, but nearby it was white…
I measured out 2.25 teaspoons. It weighed only 6 grams… I though we figured 10g/teaspoon… even if this was the complete mixture, it seems shy of the amount needed for a good black or even dark without sizzling it.
I mixed it this way, 6g, but I don’t think a powder by volume of something like TiO2 is a good idea for a formula we are trying to reproduce…
Do you have a way to weigh the TiO2 next time you make a batch, so I can get some idea of if I have the formula wrong, application of it to the tile or the lasers isn’t working like I am expecting.
I have one around here, somewhere, using @RonClarke formula that gave me pretty good results… of course it wasn’t easy either 
Did you mix the TI02 with water first? I find that helps break up the small clumps.
I should be mixing up a new batch in the next week. I have a feeling more TI02 is better than not enough.
This time I will weigh it.
I think we went 10g per tablespoon.
I did find that even using a mixer didn’t mix that well. I did the shake the heck out of it and it worked better. I wonder if the TI02 sticks the the container and can’t be scraped off to mix up again with a mixer. Problem I got there, was lots of bubbles. They did come out with a slow dry and no heating.
Maybe for now, add more TI02 (with a bit of water first) and see how that goes.
I followed your instructions and mixed as well as I could. I can see it’s distribution where the thickness wasn’t the same, both created variations in the results.
I’ll try your suggestion… thanks.
I have seen waves in the coating after they are dry, and had the variations. If it mixed fresh, they don’t seem to matter much for some reason. That is why I decided to just shake till my arm was sore. Then it acted just fine.
The mixing seems to be the big thing.
I checked and the only reliable way to dissolve TI02 is in boiling sulphuric acid. Not happening in my house.
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I’ve read about dissolving it… like in Ethanol… ha ha… works a well and separates as quick with water at far less cost and you’re not breathing the Ethanol vapors.
Got to get back out and get the weeds pulled… supposed to get into the low 90’s next week…
going to pick up some white acrylic to give this a try, I really want to get this method down it looks better and cheaper.
Mike have you tried your mix on glass? I have tried mine and I get black almost the same as I get on white tiles.
Porcelain tile is glass, so it should work virtually the same.
I’ve used LBT100 on glass and it works with the same settings on the co2 machine…
I’ve just lased off the back of mirrors and painted them…
Haven’t tried it on glass, but I do know non modified black acrylic on glass gives a nice white etch.
When you say black acrylic, do you mean paint?
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