I got some tiles at Home Depot yesterday, 4.25 inch and 6 inch, 10 of each to play with…Also got some artwork on Etsy, and added wordings to some of the purchased designs. I engraved one of each size, used acrylic paint on the acorn and Copic markers on the leaf (we only have black sharpies at home…)
To engrave, I used the settings suggested by @Laen " 225 DPI, 400 speed, full power on a Pro." The smaller tile took a bit over 22 minutes and the larger was about 36 minutes.
Are other folks using faster settings? I’d like to be able to engrave these a bit faster if possible, as I’d like to make a few dozen for others to add color to…I work at a psych hospital, leading arts and crafts groups, and think this is a project my patients can succeed with, but since I have to do the engraving ahead of time, at home, I’d like to do it a bit quicker if possible.
I like the paint look better than the alcohol markers–which faded a lot when I cleaned up with rubbing alcohol. That may be due to the wider engraved lines allowing the alcohol more access, I don’t know…
I’ve seen other references to DPI, but under Engrave, manual settings, I don’t see a place to input/select that–just speed, power, lines per inch, # of passes & then height of material…I must be missing something.
That looks great. I use prismacolor and blick studio markers (copics are too expensive for me!) and I’m thinking that a spray finish to seal after using the markers would probably put the finishing touch on those.
Thank you for your suggestion of the spray…I’m kind of using up my Copics, and not replacing them, due to the cost. I never got really good at coloring/shading with them, but like the colors, though I have only a fraction of the full set.
Your tiles came out beautiful! Such subtle coloring.
Discussion of manual settings is limited to Beyond the Manual category though, so I’m moving this topic there. If you decide to remove the settings I can move it back, or you can just leave it as is, whatever you like.
You are cleaning it up with a solvent, so not totally unexpected. Try a melamine sponge (magic eraser, but buy generic and save lots of money.) Some argument over whether to leave it dry or use it damp. It will fade the marker a little, but less so if you use a light hand.
Thanks, I did pick up some generic “magic sponge” cleaners, tried it on one of the painted tiles with a bit of improvement, got a better result on one I had used a Krylon Gold Leafing pen on.
Still, I think that painting gives me the best results. My method is to squeeze out a bit of acrylic paint onto the tile, move it over the engraved area with my fingers, and use paper towel to wipe the excess outside the design area off. Then I let it dry for 10 minutes or so, then wipe over the design area. If needed, I get the paper towel damp and press a little harder in small areas.
I did another experimental tile with wording yesterday, some of the lines of the font I chose were very thin, so I used a dye based ink, and it flowed easily into the narrow channels of the letters. It also wiped up very cleanly.
I used 800 speed and one pass with similar results, it was a little rougher finish but the paint should hold better. I haven’t had time to paint mine yet. It has been about a month, I’ll try to post a pic when I get them finished.
I would like to see your tiles when you do get them painted…I’ve been engraving more, including some small ones for testing/samples…are you keeping the LPI at 270?
sorry for the late response here, but yes. I kept it at 270, I used a rough plastic bristle brush to clean up the engraving a little. I had some residule dust. I’ve also done stone and marble with the same settings. I did not paint those because I think they turned out just fine all natural. I’m going to try to attach a photo of those.
