My wife bought a case of white ceramic coffee cups at a yard sale, 36 brand new cups. I tried to engrave them. Initial attempts did not look good. Turned the cup over and did an engraving test. Almost every square looked mostly white We then painted several squares, some black and some blue and put it in the dishwasher to see how it holds up. That worked pretty well. I then engraved the first one and it looked pretty nice without painting it. Setting with a 22 watt diode laser is 150 mm/minby 50%. It took an hour and a half to engrave. Then over the next few days I engraved 8 more. I kept noticing that there was a lot of crematic dust in the bottom of the laser base. The I noticed that the laser module fans were full if the dust. I took it apart after cleaning the laser box. Below are some pictures of it.
I took it out to my barn and used compressed air to clean it. I was able to get it very clean. I would be willing to bet that if I hadn’t seen the dust buildup, I would have burned up that laser the first time I ran it at 100 percent.
Here is what it looks like after being cleaned.
If you’re not willing or able to take your laser module apart, I don’t recommend engraving ceramic materials. I still have 23 more mugs. If I decide to engrave them I will make a filter cover for the laser module.
) and always use your safety glasses, then I would not mount that tin cover again. But if it is part of the air flow system then you should check the temperature with and without the cover, to see if the temperature rises. It is (with my laser) somewhat easier to see when it needs cleaning. And remember, always block the fan rotor when blowing with compressed air, otherwise you can generate high currents that will damage the electronics