Stupid question, I know. I’m not talking about “engraving” or “etching”. I’m talking about Marking your logo or what ever on glass with your CO2 or Fiber. I haven’t found any vids on the subject. I see a lot of vids using Cermark, Paints, etc… but their engraving / etching when it’s all cleaned up.
I was talking to one of my customers in Florida yesterday about shot glasses. They were not big fans of Etched Shot Glasses. They said the artwork wasn’t very visible. The screen printed stuff they sold quite a bit of.
I have some stainless steel shot glasses coming in to mark for samples, but I was wondering about glass.
I think I’m messing around a bit with the wording or with the translation. My work with glass is basically the same procedure as when I engrave wood or acrylic. Sorry for any confusion on my part.
I do not have a C02, I have a diode laser. I spray the glass with black tempura paint and then run the program. I am sure you can do the same with a C02, I do not know if you need to paint the glass or not. but I know it can be done. I would look at youtube they probably have someone talking and showing this
No, the black paint absorbs the light and is heated so that it literally etches the glass. You then wash the unexposed paint off. Tempura washes easily in soapy water. I use Acrylic paint as it seems to make a more uniform coating and washes off with IPA.
I have a customer that has a souvenir place in Florida. They sell shot glasses among a whole host of other things, and the ones that are silk screened -vs- etched sell 7 to 1 over them.
He told me the etching is just hard to see. I was hoping to mark them. I’ve got some stainless steel shot glasses coming in to mark for samples for them.
TomWS is correct. I get good results from Tempura but I also spray it with an HVLP which makes all the difference. It is hard to get uniform coverage without it. glass is easy to clean up so either will work great but im cheap and don’t like paying for spray paint, lol
this is a negative picture so the white you see is the paper below and the dark is the laser etched. It doesn’t look so gray in persona bad picture, but it’s all I have access to at the moment.
So it is possible to “mark & etch” glass with this Temra Paint.
I’m going to just engrave a couple with their logo on them. I’m not sure what they have on hand that the guy said it was hard to see.
Running some test now on these square’sh type of shot glasses to get numbers dialed in. I’ve got a small can of that CerMarking Spray, but that stuff is expensive.
Really don’t want to go there, but I’ll spray one, just to see what the difference in them. At least I have 4 sides to trash… on each.
If you use cold galvanize spray, it will create a black etch.
I have only done this with a diode, but should work.
Only problem, it is a lot harder to get the spray off.
I have used the titanium PVA mix and got good clean black marks on glass. Results are similar to white tile etching. No good on mirrors as it gives you a second image behind the markings on the front. Should work ok for what you are trying to achieve. Pva mix washes off with water.
Hi Bike & Ron. Yeah, I actually have a bag of Titanium Dioxide staring at me on a shelf. I actually may have to open it up, and mix some up. Best I can remember from a vid I saw this guy mixed his up with Ethanol.
There is no way to do to glass what you do to stainless with your fiber… or any laser. It’s just the way that material is.
Besides something like LBT100 or CerMark the only thing you can do with glass is shatter it. It doesn’t take well to one area being very much hotter than something right next to it…
Same thing happens to the dpssl lasers when they use tempera or some other type of coating that get excited (hot) by the beam. The heat in the coating shatters the glass… you can always feel them.
I run steel wool over glass mugs to ensure none of the glass shards end up in someones finger…
This is done on the fiber using TiO2 and water… it’s a 6"x6" porcelain tile, it’s glass… should work on a shot glass… These were not coated well, you can see the black density fading from left to right. Although you can feel these coating, they are much like the feeling of something silk screened with ink.
I know the guy I talked with in Florida mentioned they were too keen on etched shot glasses. I may just target Stainless Steel and powder coated shot glasses.
To be honest, I’m not sure I want to mess with glass anyway. I did run some etching on glass shot glasses yesterday, and did get some nice etching. I used a cordless drill and a stainless steel brush to scrap them off.
A bit too much work for production style work for me.
Hey Jack. What was your water to Titanium Dioxide ratio if I may ask. Also, how did you apply it? Plastic spray bottle, HV Spray Rig, Foam Brush it on?
Off hand I don’t recall, when I get moving again, I’ll dig it up…
I used a lot of TiO2 with the water, but it ended up being a slightly heavy slurry that would work in my air brush. It separates in water and alcohol. It’s also difficult to apply evenly. Water doesn’t stick to the tile so it’s just surface tension… also added a few drops of red food coloring.
I’d suggest using something like the white acrylic that has TiO2 in it and adding more. I’m using that at the moment with the fiber… too hot for the co2, which is in the garage…
I seemed to have better results with about twice the TiO2 in the mixture… I use a HVLP spray gun from harbor freight.
Thanks Jack. I’ve got a 2oz can of Cermark heading my way. If I get into production work, I need a solution that is easy and quick to apply. I may try the Cold Galv rattle can as a test too.
