Somebody asked me to engrave an image on Thirstystone coasters. I’m not having much luck. Settings I’ve tried so far are 375/full/ 270 — 375/80/270 —375/60/270. Pictures below (I didn’t bother to finish the engrave one the last one because I already knew it wasn’t right) . Maybe I need to increase the speed? I’m also including a picture of the image on plywood for reference
2 Likes
I haven’t tried this material, so I’m no help there, but using masking when you engrave will keep a lot of your detail from coming through. I’d try it without the masking and see if you get better results!
EDIT: Oops, the masking in the photo wasn’t on your coaster, never mind! 
I didn’t use masking on any of it.
1 Like
it’s possible that is just too fine of a detail to try to get on stone. The only way to know for sure is to test, which you’ve started.
normally i would suggest picking a small patch that you’re not happy with (maybe like her leg/garter?) and take that little square and trying it with multiple settings on a sacrificial coaster to see if you can get it to come through.
i’m not sure you’re going to get there with this. it looks like you’re really going to get a fairly monotone image and not much detail.
That’s pretty much the conclusion I was coming to, but I thought I’d ask as a last ditch effort to see if maybe there was something I missed.
Is this a case where the substance is just too hard? Maybe use an etching agent that you apply to the object before you laser it? (Like what is used on metal?)
I am really just asking for expanding my own knowledge at this point.
I am going to try one last one that I sprayed with clear coat.
Has anyone ever tried that method for stone? I am not sure a clear-coat spray would be enough. I think you need a different substance that reacts to the laser…
This is kind of weird, but something that could be tried… (mustard?)
i don’t know of any coatings for stone.
i know from doing slate coasters that you’re not really getting good variation in tones in there. you can sometimes fake it with engraving dot patterns (and regardless, always stay away from vary with something like this, just in case that was what you did, @susan.thomas0802, you don’t mention the grayscale setting). but the more detail in the smaller space, the muddier it will get.
1 Like
I wonder if stone would be more like ceramic?
Maybe something like this:
I don’t think you will get any variation in color.if there is an impervious part like a clear coat and you have cut through on what you want to mark and / or good masking then some spray paint or marker would soak into the stone and the rest removed.
If water will soak in then possibly sugar water could get to color as well.
2 Likes