Etching Rocks!

Beyond the Manual
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I know someone has already etched on rocks before but I thought I’d see how deep I could try to that engraving to go… the answer is, not deep at all… you could say that I barely scratched the surface.

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Its engraved enough to make decent images but I could not get it to go any deeper. I used the (latest) dark image setting on the first pass. Then I used the same setting and changed the lines per inch to max, power was already 100%, but this 2nd pass barely made any difference at all. I guess it all depending on the rock too though.

FYI the black honeycomb pattern on the crumb tray makes for an excellent background!

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36 Likes
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Nice starting point, thanks for the experimentation!

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A company local to us uses a water jet cutter for all their rock work, so I’m guessing that even higher CO2 laser powers may still not do much more than mark the surface for common metamorphic rocks.

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Yeah you could be right about that.

I was definitely hoping to go deeper than what is pictured… I mean I can barely fell the edge of the engraving here. But its good enough for making logos and text visible so it’s still useful.

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Did you use max power and a very slow speed?

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Both passes were at max power… 2nd pass was also at max lines per inch… now that I think of it, I didn’t change speed.

I shawl try that next.

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I was able to melt the surface of this rock into glass.

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What type of settings did you use and what type of rock did you use?

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Lowest speed, highest power. The rock is “Mexican River Rock,” or at least that’s what it said on the bag at Home Depot.

| jeffreypharrington Owner
January 16 |

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What type of settings did you use and what type of rock did you use?

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Stu,
I picked up a bag (old bag from a garage sale. Price was .49 cents) and it etched great. The etching turned white and was a great contrast to the rock color. I then ordered some on amazon and they did like your. It melted the design and made a mess of it if it was a detailed design. I cant seem to find a black or dark rock that the etching will turn white and have a clean look.

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