I want to make little stones with snarky sayings on them. I was told these are the best. Any other stone recommendations or suppliers of the stones? Thanks in advance!
Not sure where you’re located, but most of the hobby stores carry bags of rocks that are good to engrave on.
Hobby lobby always seems to be out…
Any rocks will engrave. People say all sorts of crap - often based on a testing sample of one.
I use greywacke, which is a kind of hard sandstone. The main reason - I have a lot of it in the river by my house.
It engraves great.
Get a bunch of rocks - try them. River rocks are great because you can usually find nice flat ones that are smooth, in all manner of sizes. Depending on your geography, that will determine what they are composed of. Whatever your mountains are made of. Ours are all volcanic, but the greywacke is from ancient seabed - compressed sand and mud.
Limestone is nice, granite is harder to get a decent image. Trial and error is the key.
IIRC that was 50mm/s at 80% on a Reci W2 (@100W).
I use bean bags to position them so they are as close as possible to flat to the bed. Diodes are a nightmare with rocks because the sweet spot is so tiny, its easy to be way out of focus on a rock.
Thanks! Yes, I tried my first rock and it came out ok, but VERY hard to see. So then I began wondering what color of rock would allow for the best contrast. I’m in Omaha so find rock anywhere naturally is NOT gonna happen. I just don’t want to buy rocks that I can do nothing with. Is 70 watts enough to make a difference on most rocks, I see some people engrave with a 30 watt at 30% power. Just any guidance would be helpful! Thanks!
Have you tried your local hardware store or garden supply? I know Home Depot carries bags of river rocks.
HomeDepot does have them, I just wanted to make sure they would show an engraving when done…
Unfortunately you have to play with them and see. Not all stones engrave the same. One simple trick is to spray the stone lightly with clear poly. The engrave will show up better.