Phone case help

Community Support
1

I’ve purchased this phone case and was hoping to engrave on it , I did try as a practice and it had some burn marks

I do watch straps and thought these were the sane but now I’m worried they are not

tia

kelly

2

Nobody can say what will work on the particular case you bought. You just need to test using various settings until you find something that works, or determine it’s not a suitable material. Not all materials can produce acceptable results.

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yeah I get that, I’ve messed around with the settings etc but I just wanted sone advice not he material, I was worried it might not be good for the glowforge

4

Many are not.

Just use what you have a a sacrificial piece and adjust speed and power to engrave small designs and see if you can come up with settings that work.

I personally rarely use anything other than full power, and just adjust speed when testing.

Edit - the exceptions, for me, are delicate materials like paper/cardstock, and fabric. There a lower power setting prevents charring, but I have to up the speed.

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5

You do want to find what material anything you put in the Glowforge is made out of. Any mention of vinyl, and you want to never put it inside the Glowforge (or any other laser) as just one cut can eventually kill the machine as much as if you sprayed Hydrochloric Acid as that is what happens. Nitrides and sulfides and fluorides cause a similar reaction.

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thanks so much for the advice

7

We have something called an SDS (Safety Data Sheet) in the US, which explicitly lays out the chemical properties of a material. I don’t know if there’s something similar in the UK, but you might see if you can get that info from the seller. That will help you confirm whether or not it’s actually silicone.

I will say that the description says “silicone,” but it is tagged as being made of TPU. Those are not the same materials, although you can laser them both. That might explain why you’re seeing different results.

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