Then I decided to think bigger. I’ve had interesting results with sandstone before, on sandstone coasters. The stone is soft enough that the laser can really eat away at it, at least a little at a time. Of course, I don’t have a good supplier for blank sandstone right now, but I discovered that the original printing can be erased.
Whoa, neat! I saw those tiles at the Dollar Tree, and I wanted to try them, but hated the gaudy printings on them. Would you mind sharing the settings you used to erase them? I understand if you don’t want to.
No problem. I’m still getting it dialed in. Some of it depends on the dyes, because the stone IS porous. If you really want to get rid of it, I’d give it a blast at 100 or Full. I’ve been doing it at 1000/30 and 1000/50, and realizing that it frequently takes multiple passes to clear it up. My next try will be 1000/100 or 1000/Full, and go from there. It does take some time getting them clean. The engraves also take a while because I tend to slow it down to really give the laser a chance at the stone.
That is Boo, my little baby black panther (by her behavior, at least). She, and her bother Wazowski (AKA Mike, AKA Greedyguts), live indoors with me constantly. They get to see the outside anytime, and get plenty of fresh air when the is working, but they never go outside. They get to stay safe on Halloween, and the rest of the year, for any hazard they do not create for themselves inside the apartment.
The scales were a single print engrave. 200 zooms, Variable 10-Full pews, 450 LPI, 1 pass. With the low speed and higher LPI, it was almost 3 hours for the stone. It has a nice variable depth to it, though, and consistent, defined scales. I could imagine doing some coloring to it and having it appear very realistic. Cleaned afterward with a nylon brush and hot running water. It had a lot of powder from the engrave to rub off onto fingers.