Marble etching ideas and problems

#1

This is primitive for this group, but I was playing around with lasering small marble slabs. Being a model shipbuilder, I thought of a great application… ID my ships before they sink… So, I experimented with various ways to embed the ink into the laser cuts. The 1st one was done with Black Lacquer, after I had a masking film on the marble during the lasering process. The Red one was done the same way, but with a different paint… fail… The two middle ones were acrylic paint, just wiped into the cuts. Oh, and don’t drop marble on concrete floors, they tend to break
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Upload failed… this should work

#2

Good Night, can’t see the images.

#3

Upload failed… reloaded them.

#4

I like the black and the broken one, can’t see what made the red a fail and green is just too hard to see. Thanks for leading the way to alternative materials!

#5

“primitive” does not have to mean not nice, these very much are.
Oh that work stool brings back memories!

#6

The red one was an Krylon 10 minute paint… so when I pulled the mask off, most of the paint came off on the big letters. I had to “push” red acrylic paint in to “fix”. Once you push the paint in, a quick wipe with a moist paper towel removes the top paint. Also, make sure you mask off the sides… Marble absorbs acrylic paint like a sponge and ruin the work.

#7

They look nice though, even the broken ones. :grinning:

#8

Where do you get your marble? Those are a nice size.

#9

They are from Lowe’s. Wall tile on a backer. Size is about 3.9 inches by 1.9 when taken off the backer. Fairly cheap… Works out to about to $0.80 each tile. They have a few types. Here is a link to the ones I purchased:

Marble Backsplash tile

#10

Very nice! I like these.
What settings did you use to engrave the marble?

#11

Speed and power were all over the place. The masking tape I used is from MicroMark, and to use that, I had to go about 1/2 full engraving speed at 40% power. I could go a bit faster without the tape. The power had an effect on the depth of the cut, don’t over blast it. But results varied by color density of the marble… That should be a good starting point, once you have it dialed in, then for a type of marble … you are golden. I’ve only used the off white marble so far.