I tried engraving Sandstone

I was bored and tried putting this sandstone/hard clay rock from my backyard in the laser. I used manual cut with the power turned all the way up and the speed turned all the way down. Instead of cutting through it turned the rock to glass! I made a video of it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bP9RmVcFoA

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Quite cool.

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You are prepping to seriously confuse some archaeologists in a few thousand years!

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That is a very cool accident!!! Welcome to the community!

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Wow–silica + high temp–love the outcome of glass in general, but really cool result of your test & absolutely love it!

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AMAZING. Great Video too.

Welcome the to community!

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I bet a dinosaur skeleton would look cool done in the sandstone!

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LOVE IT :star_struck: :star_struck: :star_struck:

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As soon as I find a piece big enough I’m doing that! Thanks for the idea!

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very neat…I may have to try. I tried engraving nachos chips ha! ha! and nothing happened so…your is awesome. :smile:

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That’s odd, it worked for me.

You can also engrave your guacamole.

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So cool! I had come across this same thing a bit ago and it’s such a cool phenomenon. It’s nice to know it works on all sandstone and is repeatable.

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Ooohh, please post a picture!!

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I am a big fan of thekindnessrocks project (https://www.thekindnessrocksproject.com/) but with lasering instead of painting. Which led me to an interesting bit about the Dare Stones and the lost colony of Roanoke including Bresnau’s collection of fake stones that they paid some stonecutter for. The 10 yr old in me thought it would be fun to make new laser Dare Stones…

:smiling_imp:

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A high energy deposit on slate has the same effect. Both sandstone and slate are mostly silicate, as is obsidian - a natural volcanic glass. It looks to me like that is what we are doing … making glass.

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wow!! I stand corrected. I must have done it all wrong. I am a newbie so obviously did not try with the right settings. Thanks so much for sharing these post, I will read carefully and try again. Awesome

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I am liking that look. Very cool!

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Very cool. Love that texture.

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Thank you for this. It has been a project sitting in my head while waiting all the time for the Glowforge but have not had the piece of green clay to work on, much less the more complex chemistry since it arrived,

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How long did that take to do? I assume this was an extra long engrave? Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing!

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