How do I etch on a mirror?

How do I etch on the face of a mirror? What settings to use? Do I need to prepare the surface before etching.

Again, search is your friend: Search results for 'mirror' - Glowforge Owners Forum

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I did that and didn’t find anything useful.

What, specifically do you want to know? To engrave mirrors, reverse your design and engrave the backing off of the glass. You would have to test to get the speed/power correct.

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What power, speed, LPI, and how close to the laser head to etch. I just tried a michaels 5” 1/16th thick mirror at full power, 400 speed, LPI 225, 2 passes. First pass etched it pretty deep, the start of the second pass broke the glass. I tried again at 50% power, one pass and it frosted it really nice.

In my prior post, I share what someone used for their settings. We are only allowed to discuss settings for non Proofgrade materials in the Beyond the Manual section of the forum.

Your mirror is 5" thick or 1/16" thick? Use the set focus tool to set the height.

Engrave speeds are usually much faster than what you tried. Also, you are only trying to engrave the backing off. You aren’t trying to engrave into the glass. Here is something to read regarding settings: https://support.glowforge.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033633574-Working-With-Manual-Mode

Thank you for your response. I was able to get a nice frosted image on the mirror face using 50% power, LPI 225, Speed 400. I don’t understand focus settings (importance or how to adjust) I just laid the mirror on the crumb tray, thus it was about 1/2 inch below the head. I did coat the face with dish soap before engraving. Did one pass only.

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Non proof grade settings are not allowed to be discussed in this area of the forums. They can only be posted in beyond the manual. Here is a search link that is already filtered to just beyond the manual posts. Those would be the only posts that would have settings because again, settings can only be posted there if it is not proof grade material. Hope this helps!
https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=mirror%20%23beyond-the-manual

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