Odds of this engraving on tile

Like others have said, pretty much any kind of marker/paint. The laser cracks the finish where it hits, and the paint gets trapped there but wipes off everywhere else. My favorite currently is oil markers – I have a set of Uni Posca oil markers in both regular and fine tips, and absolutely love them. They’re a little harder to get off than alcohol markers, but I have good luck with fine sandpaper. (It matters what kind, though – what I have doesn’t scratch the tiles, but other kinds do, so try yours out first.)

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This is how I got started with the Glowforge, (the sharpies) and it’s an awesome rabbit hole to be sure but wait til you start with dual layer paint :upside_down_face:

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I haven’t tried that – too hard to go get paint right now – but I’ve been playing with multicolored tiles using my markers. The oil markers can be layered a bit, so I start with color, then add black where it’s needed, and if that’s too stark, I go back over it with the color again, to end up with a slightly darker version of that color. :slight_smile:


The Hogwarts crest was a pretty low-quality image, as you can see from all the stray pixels, but it came out pretty great anyway, to my surprise. :slight_smile:

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any tile work? or do you need to get specific tiles?

About any tile works but they do not all work the same. Some even use dark clay, others just different textures result in part from the clay used and in part from the glaze used. So to the point that you need consistent results buy the same tiles.

The tiles I use from HD are roughly $.08 each
Daltile Restore Bright White 4-1/4 in. x 4-1/4 in. Ceramic Wall Tile

The original thread that started my family on the Glowforge trail was/is Etching Tile it’s a long read but well worth the effort lots of examples too.

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Tiles are a great material for engraving. I’ve done so many lol, they are really fun and super cheap. I really enjoy using glass tiles that have a white back to them. Invert your image and engrave the back of the tile, they turn out great!

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I think the low quality gives it a… rustic… sort of look. I like it. :slight_smile:

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Your tile looks great. Did you do anything else to the tile other than engrave it? :thinking:

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Nope, just engraved. I think I used slightly different settings than if it were a normal ceramic tile though. I later made a small frame for it to sit in so I could put it on a little corner shelf in my kitchen

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So cool! Where do you get your glass tiles?

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Thanks! I got mine from the Blue big box hardware store :wink: I think they were $1ish each

I’m picking up tile tomorrow and then I’m gonna make that Glowforge work! :smile:

My first print on tile y’all!

I used it as an experiment. I first started with alcohol ink at the top then I used a blue sharpie at the bottom.

And I printed another, filling it with a black sharpie.

Tackling this project frightened me, but with everyone’s help I’m not so frightened anymore. Thank you so much!

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I think you might be hooked on tile pretty quickly. These are nice.

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Thank you so much. Did you mask the back? And would you mind harming your settings? I am not sure where to start. Thanks a bunch :blush:

Heather

That, my friend, is an understatement. I went to Home Depot and bought all the 4in white tile I could get my hands on - I think it might last me the week LOL.

Lots of discussions of tile settings:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=tile%20settings

Everyone seems to have a different setting, a really broad range of numbers work here. Just skim through a few of these and you’ll get the idea.

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Looks like some others beat me to sending you settings, but yeah, check out those articles and you’ll find some good ones :slight_smile:

Why would you mask the back? There is zero chance of getting through the tile. It’s physically impossible.