Mix it with a solvent and brush it on?
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I was thinking that, or possibly lay down a layer of clear coat sprinkle the powder on then top coat it with clear afterwards.
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A real tale would be a tiny bit of cobalt carbonate, especially with a bit of borax… cobalt at 1/1000 is almost black while 1/50,000 is detectably blue, while boric acid forms a glass with silica even if nothing else is added and is frequently used just to form a shiny surface sealing a wide range of clay bodies.
Even if the tile glaze did not melt, the borosilicate might be hot enough to form a bond. No doubt if measured by the light of the moment, the air at the point of contact is easily 5k degrees C but the key is measuring the glaze even a quarter inch behind. Aluminium melts at under 500C so painting some Aluminium foil and hitting it could be very revealing.
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Painted aluminum foil test. it was a score test speed 250 power starting at 10 on the left and going up by 10.
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Was there any melting? 500 C would do it.
Yeah you bet, it started poking holes in the foil around 20-30 pews and i shut it off at 90% as it was just blasting it away. I wonder what would happen if you did this on bare aluminum tags? would you be able to etch it? I worry about reflections, but if it can be done at say 30-40% power it might be ok to test.
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That was why I was thinking about the paint, that it would absorb reflections.
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If you can find 20 mule team borax (not boraxo that is soap) or boric acid roach powder that will make a glass if you have it in a binder. Wood glue might make a black(after burned) binder, or gum tragacanth that I used before but had to add a serious oxidizer to keep it from being black.
That is awesome! So much depth!
Is it meant to be a “real” Popeye?
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No I would not. About the only thing I leave running if I leave the room is the lights… and maybe the tv… and sometimes the shower… well the coffee maker runs… 
I’m not sure. It’s a pretty cool piece of art for sure.
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Wow, that engraved really well! I need to find some time and paint to try this! You guys seem to be getting some really amazing results!
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Our local Walmart carries it.
It is commonly used in laundry. Just make sure you get the borate and not as a friend did, the soap.
One is good to turn into a glass that would remove oxides from molten metal while the other is just a burning mess, that my friend could not understand why it kept messing up his gold castings.
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That turned out mostly ok. I don’t see any banding on mine. I used a medium layer of paint… Then after a couple hours I put a lighter coat on. And then I waited about 24 hours before I pew-pewed it at 225 speed / 25 power / 430 lpi. Roughly 2 hours to finish.
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These are all awesome. I tried one a couple of days ago but it didn’t turn out…I can see now my settings were way off. Can’t wait to try it again.
Thanks!
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My wife uses it in making a laundry detergent.
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haha awesome 
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Wow! I just got my Glowforge so getting into the basics. But I’ve been a professional Ceramic artist for over 42 years. Most of the commercial tiles you are using are high fired clays. I work in low fire so the clay is “ softer” ( non tech term lol) . And the surface glaze will be different. Unfortunately my time is rather booked at the moment but I will see if I can experiment later with low fire tiles and see if they can take a design better. Another to do list for my machine. Meanwhile this is fascinating.
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