Drinking Glass Engraving

[david a graham]

I am interested in engraving drinking glasses and have been reading through the Universal, Trotec and Epilog information. What I haven't been able to understand is how difficult is engraving glassware? I don't have specific glasses in Mind but I am thinking highball glasses, etc. Could anyone point me in a direction to learn about the challenges or issues with doing this? I understand a rotary would be required, what I haven't discovered is wattage required etc.

Thanks

[Dan Hintz]

As with all materials, you should run a test block to determine the optimum settings for their specific machine.

[walter hofmann]

Hi david
the best glass to engrave is the cheapest . a crystal glass is a no no also some blue and green glasses dont work well.
I engrave single lines vertical in glass and porcellan war without a rotary just put it ina jig. as long as the glass is a normal diameter
you can do this . I use mostly the smal 40W machine and no masking tape
greetings waltfl

[Mike Null]

You can engrave glass with 25 watt machines and up. Having a rotary device enables you to keep the laser in focus around the circumference of the glass. The laser must be in constant focus in order to engrave with a consistent mark.

Not having a rotary device does not prevent you from engraving glasses but limits the area you can engrave.

[Nick Michalares]

I would be careful with laser engraving on glass. It tends to produce a rough surface with small glass shards on it which most find unacceptable. The best way to do it is to use the laserable sand masking tape available to laser the pattern on the glass, then sandblast the image. Of course it requires a sandblaster, too . . . .

[Martin Boekers]

I have seen many things posted here that do look pretty good laser etched.
Unless it's for a special event I find almost all of my customers don't want
to pay the difference for a sand etch. The main thing is to get accurate settings for
your material. Take a soft brush to your finished piece and it will "smooth" the roughness.

Again though.... a laser etch is no where near the quality of a nice sand etch.

[David Fairfield]

Yeah laser engraving glasses, I have done many many many. And then some more. How difficult is it? It depends on the glass, the rotary tool, your tolerance for repetitive tasks, your graphics skills and so on. I can only tell you in my experience, the Epilog rotary tool is frustrating to use due to potential for slip, and due to glasses being slightly out of round, both issues fouls up the graphics. Over the years I developed a little stockpile of glasses that worked reliably, as well as some methods to prevent slip, all of which I gleaned from this forum (thanks again guys! ) If the rotary tool worked perfectly, I would say it was simple & profitable, but it doesn't so it wasn't. As far as graphics goes, they need to be warped to compensate for curvature, taper, bulge etc. That takes a few sacrificial glasses, working trial and error. Not a big problem if you are comfortable with the warp and distort tools in your graphics program.

As mentioned above, quality wise, the lasering is not really optimal form of glass engraving. Sandblasting or acid etching produces a much finer result. If I get back into glassware, I will be looking at these methods. Until Epilog makes a better rotary tool, I don't want to laser any more glass.

Dave

[david a graham]

Excellent info - I thank each of you for your insight and information!

[Talley Boatwright]

I have done many of glasses on my Epilog Legend 36EXT 60watt. The best results is Dollar Store glasses, running images at 60% black, 50% speed and 50% power. A piece of steel wool will clean up any fragments remaining.

[Greg Holt]

.............................the Epilog rotary tool is frustrating to use due to potential for slip,...............

Chuck style rotary won't slip.

I have both styles of rotary and virtually never use the friction roller one.

[Talley Boatwright]

Chuck style rotary won't slip.

I have both styles of rotary and virtually never use the friction roller one.

What type of machine do you have? I would like to get a Chuck style for me Epilog. I have the Friction style and do not care for it. If I can find a Chuck style to convert over to the 8 pin plug that Epilog uses, I would get one to see how it works.

[David Fairfield]

Ditto. As far as I knew, Epilog didn't make a chuck type. If Epilog wised up and made a chuck type, or an adapter to convert that roller gadget to a chuck, that would be very good news.

Dave

[Steve Busey]

a crystal glass is a no no also some blue and green glasses dont work well.

Walter or anyone, could you elaborate? Why is crystal a no no? And what problems do the blue or green cause?

[Dan Hintz]

a crystal glass is a no no also some blue and green glasses dont work well.

Why is crystal a no no? And what problems do the blue or green cause?

Crystal is not a problem, so I don't know what Walter is talking about.

Colored glass is hit or miss... sometimes they engrave a near-white and the contrast is great, others the contrast is quite low.

[mike kunselman]

In my Universal VLS 3.50 I have found some very favorable results with glass. When going from the 1-Touch Photo to something like a pint glass in the rotary I can get a pretty stellar image. There's no way you could sandblast a photo like that. You are definitely limited when it comes to tapered glasses because of the change in diameters as it engraves, but with a little warping of the image you can get a great engraving. Something I didn't realize when I first got the rotary was that mugs with handles will hit the bottom of the engraver rather quickly if you have any kind of graphic that wraps around. I'll work up a sample to show you guys that doesn't have a client's face on it.