Hi I have been experimenting with ceramic tile photo engraving and it is turning out pretty good but I am wondering what I am doing wrong when I am coloring them in with black sharpie. If you look at my tiles they look good but there is some streaking (for lack of a better word) in the backgrounds of my photos. This is not in the photo so I am wondering if there is something I can do to prevent this? Any thoughts?
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Feels like you are underpowering the engrave, and that it’s variation in the glaze.
Try a smaller test with slower speed and/or upped power and see what you get.
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ok thank you!!
By no means am I sure about this 
Engraving is a really analog process, it’s hard to get exactly the same result every time. Lots of variables.
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Thats totally fine at least I have a place to start. Maybe its how I am wiping it off with a windex on paper towel… like you said so many variables
Yeah you might be over wiping and pulling up more ink than you meant to.
I have had good luck with melamine sponges.
You might also try letting the sharpie sit a bit longer, give it time to fully set, if I wipe too soon I sometimes get inconsistent results
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I run my ceramic tiles at full power, 600 speed, 450 LPI & everything comes out real nice.
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That’s about where I sit too. I don’t like to go much higher with speed because skinny lines can get lost.
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Just a suggestion and not a requirement but try reversing the process with sparying acrylic paint first and then lasering.
This was my first attempt, I let the paint dry during a freeze and the paint crackled, it did however come out nicely and I learned a new trick.
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@rmaker1952 Ok thank you I will try these settings @evansd2 I was coloring in with sharpie and then immediately wiping off… next time I will wait and let it set up like you suggest. Where do you get melamine sponges? I have never heard of them.
Thank you so so much for your valuable input @rmaker1952 and @evansd2 its very appreciated!
@aanden thats really cool! I will have to give that a try.
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There are more…
Don’t use these though on the painted version… won’t work and not needed. You will need a clear shellac though.
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I’ve never been able to get large areas of Sharpie not to streak. Your tiles look awesome even so!
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Thank you!
This question is aimed at you and the OP: Do the streaks get any less apparent if you do another round of Sharpie and wiping?
These engravings look great. I actually like the streaking effect in the vintage wedding photo.
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No. I tried everything I could think of on this one, and only succeeded in making it look progressively worse. 
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I gave it a try… looks better - still a little streaking - but I think it looks better. I let it sit a good 10 minutes.
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That looks a lot better! I guess what makes this tricky is that the marker tip tends to dissolve any previous strokes.
Really nice work!
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