Thanks for testing this idea and showing the results. Guess I’ll keep those almost empty cartridges a few more months.
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Well, it could have some promise after all. Thanks for running with the idea. Toner doesn’t look like it fills as smoothly as the Laser Darc SEEMS to. But it does seem to bond OK. Would hate to do multiple passes with it, but might be worth it for special projects.
Thanks again!
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Maybe a deeper engrave resulting in more toner fill would work…
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I took your lead and did a little more experimenting with powder coat, this time it went much better! I must not have been using enough powder the first time. Sorry that the photos I got are BOTH blurry, but I figured it would be better to post what I have than to just say “the photos I got weren’t good”…
The left two are a chrome powder. The leftmost one was at 10% power and the second one was at 5%. You can see some separation lines in the squares, that’s where I defocused it by a few mm. I believe the second silver box was lowered to 6mm, then 12mm, then 9mm below the correct focal distance. The third was “silver vein”, which I should have known wouldn’t come out very good but tried anyway. The forth is called “starlight black” (I think that’s the name). That color is mostly black, but with reflective/colorful flecks in it.
These are all “candy raspberry”. These were done by just dumping a pile on the wood and tamping it down into a flat layer (no pre-engraving). They came out OK, but when I ran my thumb over the shapes in an attempt to knock off leftover powder I ended up scraping off some of the print as well. Oops! I’ll try compressed air next time (tomorrow, hopefully).
By the way, these are all Eastwood powders. I have another brand (Prismatic Powders) that I’ll try out as well.
Here’s what the Silver Vein powder looks like when it’s applied and baked… This also has a layer of clear powder coat.
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Awesome!! I like those alot more than the toner! Better color variety like metallics. 
Also may work better with the Glowforge since the toner worked best on only 1% power on a 30 wt laser.
I thought about trying without the etch first too but figured it needed to be secure within a channel for durability. I know toner on laser printed paper cracks a bit when you fold it. I figured the powder coat may be more durable.
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Defocusing sounds plausible. Also, I’m going to guess that there’s a sweet spot for powder thickeness: too thin and you just zap the powder into nothing, but too thick (unless you can defocus or get the power down or whatever) and you melt the top but don’t get good adhesion.
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Many hobbyists use recycled toaster ovens to bake small powder coated parts. I could never find one at the local Goodwill store, so I just waited for a sale at one of the big box stores. A second hand kitchen stove in the garage would be nice for hobbyists with medium-size projects.
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Good idea, thanks!
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Very interesting topic and idea to try. I have several containers of powder coat that I use as pigment in my acrylic when I pour pen blanks to turn. New project/test for the weekend !!! (157 days until Xmas…) 
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