Hi. I did some searches and did some engraving on a river rock that turned out ok but will try again with a thicker font. I used a thin one and was hard to read. I had read some rocks were not ok to use. I do not know what these are so checking if anybody knows what they may be and if ok to put in the glowforge. Thank you in advance!
Lovely work - and at least in the picture it’s totally readable
AFAIK there isn’t a rock out there that will hurt your , but there are some that won’t engrave well. Some may not cut, others will crack, yet others may craze. Your best bet is to test. A lot of times those mixed bags of polished rocks are dyed quartz - other times they’re different gemstones.
If you want the engraving to show up better, you could always wrap the rock with masking tape before engraving, then paint the area before peeling the masking off.
Thank you for the replies. I did try all 4 of them. 3 came out ok. Some chipping. The white is what it came out like, no paint. The dark one chipped quite a bit and was hot when I took it out which scared me.
In the past when I engraved tile, common rock, or slate I would see glowing sparks of material being ejected at high speed straight up from the surface. I do not know if it is possible to chip the laser lens. A sand blasting effect on a car windshield? Just a personal concern of mine, not something that I have noticed.