Have never seen a slate tile roof in WV but somehow I ended up with a box full. Of course everything looks like a blank slate when you have a laser. Grabbed a broken tile for this test. Uploaded a simple drawing of my Xterra SUV and attached tent. Pressed Print. Slate does not accept shading very well and you should to be aware that the image will appear as a negative, but it works great for line drawings.
holy C^&* that is awesome think about the possibility’s for like a foot path to the house or the pool etc…
The business that I run is in an early 1920s mansion that has a slate roof. I need to scour the grounds around the house because I know there ate tiles that fell off. Never thought to grab them!
Totally cool, and I’m super envious! (no slate roofs around here either)
I didn’t think about it until you said that! Amazing, perfect. I need slate.
PS. @rpegg this really came out great!
How deep can you go on slate? Would you be able to cut deep score lines so you can shape it?
Aww, I miss my xterra! Couldn’t justify bringing it across the pond. So much space for art materials/projects…
Looks great. Thanks for sharing. Lots of slate roofs around here in New England. Shortly after I ordered my Glowforge, we was at an architectural salvage store and I grabbed 10 slate shingles. I can see lots of possibilities.
We have a couple of pieces of slate from a 200-year-old roof that we use as cheese boards. We use a piece a very hard chalk to write the name of each cheese that we are serving. I have a feeling that our cheeseboard is about to get more ornate.
Nice! Pet memorials is another possible use.
Hard to see any problems with your test. That is amazing on a material that really doesn’t get used as a lasering medium.
No. You can’t even feel the engrave above. It’s more of a bleaching effect. I used far more power on a piece of slate like tile my first week and was able to get a mark that you could get your fingernail into. But not much more.
We have three of them. The wife uses hers as a portable art studio and camping vehiicle. A pickup with 4WD would work as well in these hills but can’t throw my upright bass in an open truck bed. The one I drive lost the transmission yesterday at about 210K. Praying that I can flush it as a quick fix. Otherwise, will be going online to find a reasonable 2015.
Seems like we are going to have a near-limitless variety of materials to experiment with, once we all get our units of course
That contrast seems much greater than what I got, do you recall the settings?
The settings, as you know, don’t mean a lot on the low end right now. Engrave 5%/335/270
This was the original drawing:
Real slate reacted a lot differently than another man made material on the left. The octagonal tile that I originally thought was slate had a dark, almost melting look to the lines with the same settings.
I am jealous of your box of slate. I love the material so much, I restore old burial grounds that are filled with the wonderful slate stones and just took a class on how to carve slate in hopes of eventually learning to repair them. Slate is one of the first things besides wood I’m putting in my GF.
Thanks.
That other material sure looks like slate. maybe be a ceramic. The mineral content must be a factor also, the slate I did @50% 335 340 isn’t nearly that white.
I THINK the tile I found was slate, and it went pretty deep. They were rasters, though:
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