Engrave On Stone La Mer Jars

First commission to engrave on La Mer jar caps. Took me some time to figure out the settings considering its a specific type of …opal …stone? Overall I am happy with the results

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Interesting effect! Is that just paint on the stone? :slightly_smiling_face:

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Beautiful results! I would have been so nervous engraving on a La Mer jar. $$$

I’d say you should be happy with the results. That looks fantastic!

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What a lovely turn out!

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Its the underlying stone, I think, they must paint the jars white? I’m not sure…

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Oh Yeah, these are 2oz jars that run $315! I was given spare caps to test at least :sweat_smile:

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Testing on La Mer Lip Balm caps. Was worried to engrave on metal for my first time. The name was done with 225 lpi and the fish 270lpi, will definitely use the higher setting.

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This kind of engraving is one of the cases where very high resolutions make a visible difference - I usually do something like 450 or even higher. It’s surprising how smooth a blended look you get. Since it doesn’t burn the metal you don’t get the over burning and char you get with high resolutions and wood.

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Honestly, I was nervous to even do it at all. Highly reflective material, the camera could hardly recognize it. I think 270 for the fish looks fine but I’ll test with the higher 400s like you suggested. Thanks!

You can apply your own paper masking tape over the top of reflective materials to help with that. You can buy large rolls of it that last a very long time. (They do suggest not lasering directly on highly reflective surfaces due to the slight risk of damage to the lens by the beam.)

Thanks, Jules, is it just regular masking tape or transfer tape?

It’s actually a vinyl transfer tape (for transferring vinyl cuts, not made out of vinyl) - I’m looking for the link…

I think this is it:

https://www.uscutter.com/TransferRite-High-Tack-592U

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That’s all I’ve ever used. Works great on every material I’ve tried.

It’s a lot more expensive. (I’m a cheapskate.) :smile:

Thanks for this, Jules!

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But for jar lids you can give wide blue painters tape a try. Just bump the power by a few points (I usually power up or slow down about 5 points when using painters tape.).

Was the text for the name a vector or raster?

If raster, was it pure black, or another color? It looks like convert to dots was used and you can visibly see the dots. I’m not 100% sure of the behavior if it’s pure black - if it still pulses the laser to make dots or if it’s solid laser. I would maybe try making the text black and then using vari-power setting. The vari-power setting will use a constant laser instead of dithering and I think you might get better results.

I took your recommendation on that transfer paper roll and it works beautifully and lasts a long time.

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Believe it or not, I just ordered my first roll of the high-tack stuff today. I had the medium tack, and apparently wasn’t applying it correctly…it kept coming up.