Question before I try

I received Glowforge Pro for Christmas and I am thrilled!! My head is so full of ideas now!

What I am wondering…I have seen people print on pies, marshmallows and the like. So, my question is, I am a Potter as well and wanted to try to engrave designs on plates. They are almost dry (dryer than a pie. ) At this point, a layer of underglaze is applied to the surface and a pattern is usually carved in with tools to create the design. It is then fired and then glazed. Would it damage the laser if I tried it in my machine?? I hoping not, as this would be a game changer for me.

Thank you in advance!
Jeffrey

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Hi…welcome to the community. I don’t know personally about this, but if you do a search you will find many posts with similar questions. I don’t believe it would damage the laser, but if there was a lot of ‘powder’ created while engraving, it wouldn’t be good for the insides of the machine and the optics.

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Yeah, I’m not to sure about the dust…I will search. Thank you so much! :grinning:

Welcome! Can’t wait to see your creations!

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With people engraving everything that they can imagine, I don’t think you need to worry about ceramic clay dust any more than those who are working with fired tiles and glass… or even wood or acrylic. (My coin project generated aTON of residue…) Just try and keep the glow forge clean afterwards. (But not TOO clean, There are many horror stories here from people who cleaned their Glowforge and it stopped working!)

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Hey man! Thank you for the info. I just tried glass for the first time and it was awesome. I’m going to give a test piece a go tomorrow and see how it goes. I think if I can use tape without removing underglaze it should minimize the dust.

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If you are into glass I recommend you check out Lazermask. You’d need some kind of sandblaster too, but the results are great, much better than direct engraving in my experience.

My post about this:

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