Giving tile a try

Picked up a few 6" ceramic floor tiles at the local big box store this morning to prototype a upcoming project. Honestly, I expected something along the lines of my slate engravings, so was a bit surprised when this emerged…


Vector engrave at 80/300/225

Feels almost totally smooth and is glassy/glossy. Very cool effect that I’ll leverage for a different project.

Could one of the pottery mavens please explain what happened? Thanks! :slight_smile:

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That’s awesome! So, you took a rough textured tile and engraved it smooth? Wow!

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That’s a wonderful effect! (I was just thinking about doing something with tile this morning…need to see if I still have a couple of the leftovers from the floor rework somewhere upstairs.)

:grin:

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It looks like you are etching off some of the glaze and dye from the ceramic. The appearance of this kind of tile is all surface, after all. You’ve scraped beneath the surface.

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I don’t know a lot about masonry. Would that cause any problems long term? Either cracking or damage from heat or liquid? Is there a sealer for that?

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Nice! Opens up all sorts of possibilities for a custom backsplash :slight_smile:

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I wouldn’t expect major issues, depending on what you were planning to do. This shouldn’t have taken enough to compromise the integrity of the tile, and ceramics are extremely resistant to heat. So long as it is totally smooth, it is probably just partly through the total glazing, burning off the cosmetic effects. If paranoid, there are tile sealers, usually just for the grout, that could be used on this. I especially wouldn’t worry about liquid unless you are worrying about staining.

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I LIKE!! Thanks for sharing!!

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This is a great transition to something I was coming here, to the forum, I had about 12 Travertine tiles left over from when they did my kitchen 3 years ago, and I had planned to use. I want a darker marking than what I could get with JUST etching produces, sort of like black. So I was planning on using Cermark for Tile and Glass on them first. This SHOULD produce what I am looking for. The black design on the Travertine surface. You spray the whole tile first, laser it, then rinse off the design.

I haven’t looked, but was wondering if there was a white Cermark and if anyone had tried it on any type of glass, or at least those that fit in the 2 inches of the GF?

Here was a video of what I am talking about

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I really like that effect. Just guessing it melted the glaze a little. Think I’ll be picking up some rule to play with :smile:

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you could mask the tile, etch, paint or epoxy or dye, then pull off. done right, you’d get texture, whatever color you want, etc.

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It looks like your GF just cleaned that tile… as in reinstated it.

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Very True, it would be much cheaper. I have three or four pieces of Trim that I can practice on, I might try that first as Cermark is muy expensive.

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Wow–great to know this exists. I can think of a lot of ways to play with this, layering different panes with different colors for instance. Bookmarked!

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Love the tile. Just picked a bunch of extra tiles up from my family. Can’t wait to engrave them. The Tile/Glass Cermark looks promising. Thanks for sharing. I will have to test it out eventually when I get my :glowforge:

I think I will be doing a lot of what @jrnelson is talking about, (Masking, Engraving, then Painting).

I would :heart: but all out again :+1:

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Very amazing finish. When you say Vector engrave at 80/300/225

The 80 is power, 300 is the speed. What is the 225?

Thanks for sharing!!!

Dustin

Lines Per Inch. :slightly_smiling_face:

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