Norton White Tile Method

Thanks for testing this. The glass tile seemed lower and slower were better.

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That was the set of three i had set up to put the most power to it as well. I had another set with the same speed but with 10 power and another set of three with 5 power. But at this point and from my first test yesterday, I think it’s the speed more than the power. But more testing will be needed before I can verify that. But I’m thinking real hot, and slow so the heat lingers is what’s causing the effect.

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I’ll be back in an hour or 2 when this engrave finishes…


I will update with my test and settings used. My phone is dead and my only charging cable is currently plugged into my ipad doing a timelapse. Been working on it most of the day.

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This is the image I was trying to create.



After removing the paint.

This is just after the print finished on the far right tile.

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Wow…that looks pretty good. (You’re right, this needs exploring.)

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Grayscale? I would have thought dither would give better results.

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The high DPI probably helps, but I think you’d get darker results if you slow it down a bit. This is going to take a bit to dial in perfectly I think. But I’m totally impressed with the results I’ve (and you’ve) gotten so far.

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Well this is what I was doing last night instead sleeping lol.

Printed in order bottom left-> bottom right-> top left-> top right.

For the last 2 tiles I defocused the laser slightly. the tiles are ~0.285" and I set the height at 0.300".


Bottom left 2 hrs, bottom right 2.25 hrs, top left 1.5hrs, top right 3 hrs,

3 coats of paint


2 coats of paint


1 coat of paint


2 coats of paint

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Agreed :slight_smile:
I was in the middle of making a post when you replied hehe
I think slower is a good step for sure, trying to find the balance between time and finish. That and having too much fun. The surface left behind is fused to the enamel on the tile. you cant scrape it off if your settings are low enough to not cause the enamel to flake and break off. When i was doing the one that messes with the eye i started it at 500 speed first off but it was causing the engraved sections to pop and peel off. started over and sped it up to 600 and things worked fine

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That’s what surprised me as well. How incredibly durable it is. You literally have to damage the tile to get it off.

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Gosh…I have something new to try now. I bought a box of 100 tiles back when I discovered how fun they were, but I used less than 20 because I hate coloring them. I just couldn’t find anything that worked as well as sharpie, but I always messed up the sharpie when cleaning off the excess. Now I have 80 other tiles I can try with this, though I need to go buy paint…

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I did the same thing. I tried it with the sharpie and it works. Pretty good. But I wondered how lightfast that was going to be, and how durable as well. This method just sort of came out of the blue. I don’t even remember where I saw it first. I just know that it was people using low power diode lasers and I couldn’t believe the claims. So I had to try it. :rofl:

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One thing i want to try is using makeup, They have some of the same chemicals as the paint so might have a similar effect but also be able to deposit color onto the tile. I dont own any makeup tho so it might be awhile for that test. that and they use some nasty stuff in makeup so it would need some investigation and testing first.

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Honestly, I don’t own any makeup either, to me it would be cheaper to buy paint. Plus, I know nothing about makeup (I lived with my dad in my teen years), I wouldn’t even know where to start. The only thing in my house that goes on my face is sunblock, and I don’t think it’s effective against lasers :rofl:

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At this point I don’t know what’s effective for lasers any more. I am going to try lasering potatoes and gravy tonight I think. :rofl:

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Let me know how that goes :rofl: :rofl: My sunblock is a physical sunblock? So, not the chemical kind? I don’t know, another parent suggested it to me, I only recently starting wearing sunblock because of the amount of sun damage/freckles I’ve been getting. So…It might be effective against some lasering.

Haha, I was just contemplating trying different colors of paint other than the flat white.

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Tried a real world test with a nice, high contrast photo. Dithered. 430lpi. 25 pews and 250 zooms.


With the flat white removed.

And a few close ups

And here was the photo I used.

So it looks like it lost a little of the finer detail, but I did have to shrink it considerably after importing it to fit it on the tile.

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That turned out really nice I think. even with the squish of making it smaller a lot of the detail came through

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I’m picking some of this stuff up tomorrow.



Contains no clay and far more talc compared to the product i am using, I have a theory that it will deliver darker results.

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