Laser Engraving, the trend of glass engraving is very popular now, especially on most occasions. Where you would like to have a personal touch with your souvenirs or giveaways. It fits well too with company logos and businesses. Nowadays, many DIYs are being done using home laser machines and it’s a fun project to create your own designs or even generate an income with them.
Before we start, here is an introduction about Glass Engraving
Laser Engraving a bottle
A bit of introduction to Glass engraving:
- There are 2 methods of glass engraving, SandBlasting, and Laser Etching / Laser Engraving. Sandblasting can leave a deep mark on the glass creating a very distinct texture and this kind of technique requires professional knowledge as it is very labor-intensive. Then we have Laser Etching/Engraving where the marks are usually above the surface only. Laser Etching is just 0.0001 in. Depth, while Laser Engraving is 0.0001 – 0.005 in. Depth.
TIPS:
- Masking: For artwork placement, you can first mask with tape then lightly engrave your design, it will show you the graphics placement and have the idea how it will look like.
- Make sure to Polish: You can use a Scotch Bright or the like to polish the surface for small shards of glass.
- Dish soap: Apply a thin layer of liquid soap around the glass surface. It will help dissipate the heat when engraving. This trick is something similar as the masking technique.
- 80% Grey scale: To improve the engraving quality, change the black in your graphic to 80 percent.
- Lower resolution: Using around a 300 DPI, this will produce a better result on glass as you separate the the dots you are engraving
- You can set-up your image or design by using CorelDraw, Illustrator, Inkscape, or other software that offers the same functionality.
Glass Testing:
- It’s always ideal to have a few extra pieces to have room for error. Test the speed and power settings always if you are just new, it will depend on the type of glass that you wish to use.
Glass Shape & Color:
- Color: As a general rule of the thumb always take in consideration the color of the glass that you will use. Remember, the lighter color of the glass, the better engraving will appear.
- Shape: For any round glass object, a rotary attachment is needed for your laser machines. These rotary attachment plugs can easily shape through, and glide into rounded bottles then rotate as the laser engraves.
We hope that this article helps you engrave your glass with confidence. This kind of project will be a big help by getting busy while staying at home. Thank you for your support.
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