How to Laser White tile

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Has anyone tried this method using a glass tube CO2 laser and had success?

I know Zach Terwee,Ryan Cowdray and Steve Juke have,they use around 40-50 mm/sec at 13-25 % power

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Thanks, Jim. Is there a particular brand or type/finish of white paint that works better than others? Any to avoid? I am guessing the paint has some sort of suspended solid ingredient that is similar to the solids found in laserable coatings which work with glass (such as LaserBond). Is white the only “color” that works?

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@Bulldog
Which is your favorite brand of paint to use?
Painters touch flat with primer seems to be the darkest in the image. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Cheers

Sas

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It is just Painters Touch,BUT,it is now discontinued so next in line painters touch with primer

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I’ve been burning tiles, making different power/speed ramp tests with my 50 watt CO2 laser and getting pretty much no where. I can get a dark gray around 100mm/sec and around 15% (I think that’s about 6mA), but when I do any actual images it is really light. I’m running a 45 watt Lightobject tube(1000mm tube) on a Chinese blue/white laser. Any suggestions? Its not really bonding anything to the tiles, either removing the paint, or removing it and leaving it sooty.

Thanks,

Dan

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There are a few Co2 people who have success…You have to slow down to allow fusion process,between 30- 50 mm /sec…15 to 20 % power .Zach Terwee,craig Huff,Steve Juke have done this

Oh wow, 30-50 mm/sec is really slow for most CO2 work. I tried at around 150 mm/sec and got light gray and kind of sparse on the printing. I’ll turn the speed WAY down and try some more. Thanks for all the good info you’ve brought to this thread.

Yup kind of the Crock-Pot vs Microwave concept. Low and slow rather than fast and hot.

Cheers

Sas

I’ve just done two, one vector and one photo at 10%/50mm/sec and they’re still pretty light, but better. Got a photo going now at 12.5/40mm/sec and so far it’s still fairly light. If I get much below 10% I don’t think my laser will fire, and 40mm/second is painfully slow even for a 4x4" tile. I’m using Jarvis image mode at 300DPI. I’ll post a picture or two once I get the next one off the laser. I also have a diode laser on my CNC router, it may be the better tool at these speeds and power settings?

Dan

Forgot to ask, is anyone using air assist? I always do to keep junk cleared from my lens, but maybe it needs to be lower/off? Thoughts?

Dan

Air assist reduces the burn /fusion,needs to be OFF

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you are using white tiles,are they a gloss or a matte type finish

I’m a little confused on this tile thing - is this done with white paint on white tile? Is the pant itself turning dark on exposure to the laser beam?

YES &YES

Cheers

Sasquatch

https://www.facebook.com/notes/eleksmaker-led-discussion/nortons-method-for-etching-white-ceramic-tile-or-glass-or-cups-or-platesfor-diod/526575051326849/

You guys got me curious about this so I started playing around. Got 4 different white paints from the local Lowes. All except one seemed to give me dots that were gray with a black circle around the dot except for one which gave me a true black dot. I measured the dot to be .142mm. I just couldn’t get any better than that (not that I tried REAL hard). So with that dot size I’m running a test at 181 dpi. The only paint of the 4 I tried that gave a good result was Rust-Oleum Flat Protective Enamel.

Here’s what I’m getting with the other paints. Makes it more clear what I’m saying above about the black circle. And I’m running a 60 watt CO2.

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