The Key to Engraving Glass on a Diode Laser

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[@asherdiy]

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[@Bmeri3]

After a few tests and getting very frustrated with brush painting glass, I’ve found using a spray can of chalk board paint is so much faster and easier. You can paint multiple glass items in literally seconds. It comes out smooth and requires very little paint. I thought it would be tough to remove the paint after etching, but it’s a snap if you spray the glass item with a generic window cleaner. Let it sit a few minutes and the paint will wash off with a light scrub using your hands or a fine scrubber sponge like the type you use for dishes. So much faster and easier than hand painting. One can of spray paint goes a very long way and will save you hours of time and frustration.

[@petecute]

Some years ago i was engraving glass on the job i had. Tried a lot of things. Ending up with with a page of wet news papir. Just put it on the glass and engrave. It created a much smoother surface after engraving.

[@asherdiy]

That’s a cool idea. I heard about a method similar to this, but I haven’t tried it yet. Thanks for the tip!

[@joecorley1627]

Great info and a great quality video. I'm new at this and this info will be very useful. Although I've watched many hours of video on engraving glass, you gave the missing info. Thank you.

[@asherdiy]

So cool to hear that - glad it helped!

[@markgreer6585]

Fantastic instructional Asher! Your research and sharing is much appreciated. I have 3+ years of experience and consistent great outcomes with ceramic and porcelain tile. But over the past year, I've tried engraving glass with many techniques....and given up several times. Looking forward to trying again with your recommendations. 👍 XTool 20W, Hawai`i

[@asherdiy]

Thanks! Great to hear it!

[@ChatterontheWire]

watering down the paint helped me on the tempra paint I did, but the issue I found with foam brush was lines in the paint and having to do a 2nd coat. If you don't have a good coverage and leave a "line" in it, it shows up in the engraving.

[@asherdiy]

What ratio did you use for the water/tempera mix? And did you dip or air brush? Just curious. Interestingly, I've also just discovered that the paint lines seem to show up more on higher powered diode lasers. For example, it didn't seem to matter at all on a 10W (which is what I used in this videos examples), but I just did a couple more tests with a 20W and 40W diode module and the even-ness of the paint did seem to matter a bit more for those higher powered lasers for some reason. I'll probably still use foam brushes when I just experimenting, because it uses less paint than a dip tub. But if this turns into something I do production runs for, I would probably dip the glasses instead.

[@ChatterontheWire]

@@asherdiy roughly 50/50, may have been a bit too thin and I tried air brushing, which was just too SLOW, then tried dipping, but got some air bubbles from what I recall, but been a month or two and worked on a number of other projects (was just doing this as a one off for a wedding for friends). Ultimately I just went back to painting on with foam brush. I have the 20W and the lines weren't really bad but enough that I noticed them and why I went to a 2nd coat to make sure I couldn't see any.

[@Fancylooks]

@@ChatterontheWire Have you tried putting the paint on the glass with a dishwashing sponge with fine, even holes and not dragging it, but pushing it slightly on top of the glass with vertical touches? that made a big difference for me when engraving tiles.

[@ChatterontheWire]

@@Fancylooks will keep it in mind for future attempts

[@Fancylooks]

@@ChatterontheWire Hope it does

[@amandawiggy2284]

I've never engraved glass, and don't plan to. Still had a great time learning from you. Thank you KZbin algorithm for an interesting time.

[@asherdiy]

Wow - that’s great to hear. Thanks for watching!

[@d4v1dd]

Hey Asher, thanks for the great video! I’m new to laser engraving, but wondering if painting the inside of the glass works as well and if it has a different effect.

[@asherdiy]

I would not engrave the inside, because if there is any tiny glass chips from the engraving, you don’t want to drink them.

[@nicolehatten8738]

​@asherdiy I think (if I'm not mistaken) @d4v1dd meant painting the inside of the glass and engraving the outside. Would that work?