Can the glowforge laser do subsurface laser engraving in glass? I’ve seen those crystals with photos engraved inside leaving the crystal smooth on the outside and I’m curious if that is something I could try doing with glowforge.
Nope, that’s a very specific kind of laser (YAG I believe, but don’t know) - now that being said, you can engrave on the backside of two different pieces of thick acrylic, and then meld them together to create that illusion!
They talk about it here (back in 2015 so before the 
was in anybody’s hands)
5 Likes
Have you tried the acrylic thing? Sounds pretty neat!
It’s not a special laser per-se, the CO2 would work fine but it needs different optics, so, no, the GF is not suitable.
Basically you need a much wider lens that focuses the beam into a pin-point in 3D - as accurate in depth as in x and y. It also needs to be able to focus deep into the object, think of the shape of a funnel with a wide opening.
The optics (specifically the lens) on the GF has a much tighter “cone”, significantly less precise in the “depth” dimension.
4 Likes
I did it by accident once, but haven’t returned to it for an actual project…hmmm, but I do have ideas!
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.