Last week I did some work on glass tiles from Home Depot. This weekend I want to show what a specialty laser tile looks like from the Glowforge.
LaserTile is a specially treated ceramic tile. It comes in different sizes and is available here http://lasertile.com/
The glaze reacts to laser light and turns a fuses black. It’s a lot like what happens with laser printers. It won’t scratch off and it doesn’t actually etch the surface like I did with the glass tiles.
So I pulled out a tile, dropped my 'forge’s design onto it and hit Print. At 1%power, 335 in/min and 225 lpi, it took 9 minutes.
Here’s what it looked like on the little first-timers plaque:
Holy crap, that’s really awesome. I hit the bookmark button really hard. Can’t wait to try this, once the glowforge gods deem me worthy.
Thank for sharing!
Wow that came out so crisp ! I have a box of that stuff waiting here !! It says it doesn’t actually etch the tile but reacts with their “coating” or something to that effect… What does the surface of this engrave feel like? Do you feel the engraving, or is it under the glaze?
They are - shipping is ridiculous but they are heavy (and well packed to prevent breakage). But they’d be cool accent tiles in the field or border tiles or other pattern pieces.
I use them as coasters with a felt or cork backing glued to them (the undersides have ridges designed to provide room for the mortar that they’re usually set into) and I like to have a finished furniture friendly surface on the bottom.
They often have deals as well as "free shipping " boxes. I got a box with free shipping of several dozen 4x4 tiles (maybe 6x6? stored em waiting for my GF) and they price was not bad .
That’s the only time I buy them They don’t take a lot to store so having some waiting for a project is better than paying for shipping when you absolutely need them now!
It looks great! Thanks for testing this and sharing your results. I have had the LaserTile website bookmarked since they were first mentioned on the forum about a year ago. I can see this working well for some of my Glowforge plans.