Engraving on Wine Bottles

[Roy Sanders]

In the first place I recognize most of you are either wood, or vinyl experts. SO, does anyone engrave wine bottles? I want to do this as a fun hobby. I see youtube videos, most do not go into the process deeply enough.

I have a rotary with my laser engraver. I need to know what format to use, positive or negative. Then dimension settings. When I use the positive the graphic is huge, even when I set the screen picture down to 3 mm. And it the curvature of the bottle makes the photo look goofy.

So based on the above, any ideas what I am doing incorrectly?

Thank you

Roy

[vic casware]

Hi Roy,
I keep meaning to engrave more wine bottles myself, on Epilog's website and others i'm sure
the sample club has some great glass samples including wine bottles and Glass Decanters
they look fantastic. I'm pretty sure even their settings and instructions will help you too.

[Roy Sanders]

Hi Vic

Thanks, I appreciate you suggestion. I will look on that website

Roy

[Dan Hintz]

Positive or negative should have no effect on the image size. Use a positive image for mostly clear bottles/liquids, use negative for darker bottles/liquids.

[Bernie Fraser]

Positive or negative should have no effect on the image size. Use a positive image for mostly clear bottles/liquids, use negative for darker bottles/liquids.

I think ink it will have an effect on actual image size Dan because if his image has a white background and he inverts it now he has the background of the image as black. Depending on his image he may need to ensure he starts with a clear background and maybe even add a contour around the image so that it is still defined if he inverts it. Can you post an example of the graphic Roy?. I have to head off to work soon but could have a quick look at it at the end of the day.

[David Somers]

Roy,

I havent played with glass at all yet. But, one thought I can give you. The reason a lot of folks here don't do much with glass is they have found that it is tricky and not too consistent for the effort, both in terms of the overall success of a piece, and for the quality of the engraving on any given piece. Instead they use the laser to cut a resist and then apply it to a piece and sandblast it. That may be more than you are ready to get into of course. And I don't mean to discourage you from playing with glass. I just wanted to point out why you dont see many using their lasers with glass for other than small runs and one off pieces to play with.

One way people do have some fun with glass though is mirrors. They will etch the back of a mirror to remove the reflective coating. Some folks seem to have a lot of fun with that. It is less common to see the front of the mirror engraved since the engraving will reflect in the back of the mirror and create a double image.

Have fun!

[Bill Cunningham]

If you're going to do wine bottles, test one of them first. A LOT of wine bottle etch poorly. I think it might be the glass compound used for coloured bottles. The clear ones seem to do ok. Also, Run n Buff work well on the ones that don't etch well.. I do a lot of glass, and some wine bottle don't do very well. The clear ones usually work the best..
Below are two vodka bottles (liquor bottles always do better) Also a dark wine bottle w/gold
plain.jpgGoldFil.jpgbottle.jpg

[Mark Sipes]

Oh my Bill, I think you were dreaming of your younger years when you wrote

Run n Buff

I believe you meant Rub-n-Buff not Run in the Buff... although it might be an effective marketing technique.

HaHA.


.

[David Somers]

Hah! Mark...that sounds like a great name for a wine or beer label!! Bill....you interested in expanding into being a vintner or craft brewer?

[Bill Cunningham]

Darn autocorrect eh! I haven't run in the buff for years.. Did streak a flowershow once, and won a prize for the best dried up arrangment ;=)
And Yup, Rub N Buff it was!

[Dan Hintz]

I think ink it will have an effect on actual image size Dan because if his image has a white background and he inverts it now he has the background of the image as black.

Sorry, Bernie, but this has been discussed before in gory detail. Image compression algorithms rarely care whether they are compressing white or black. RLE-encoded images only care how many pixels in a row are one color, and DCT-encoded images only care about the average color for a block (and the same amount of bits will be used to code that average).

[Junior hall]

Very nice mr bill ... Where do you get your wine bottles from if not mind me asking... My guess would be any local bar am i right thanks

[Bernie Fraser]

Sorry, Bernie, but this has been discussed before in gory detail. Image compression algorithms rarely care whether they are compressing white or black. RLE-encoded images only care how many pixels in a row are one color, and DCT-encoded images only care about the average color for a block (and the same amount of bits will be used to code that average).

I agree with you Dan that the file size will not change if inverted or not. He says the graphic size changes ( not file size ) if he changes it to positive. If this is the case I would think it is likely that he is inverting an image with a background instead of a vector or monochrome bitmap with a transparent background. Easier if we could see the file he is having the issue with. If he is noticing a size change in the graphic there is a logical reason to why it is happening.

[Roy Sanders]

Hello All,

I am at home today, so I will dig the bottles out of the trash and take a pic to post. I did three trials the other day. I watched a video the other day and the presenter did something in didn't. He set his page up just to represent his bottle size. Width = bottle hight and length = circumference. then he placed his graphic on the page.

This is the graphic I am attempting to engrave during this learning curve. The goal is to put this type of graphic on the bottles my friend then turns into lamps.
spoon.dancin.jpg
I use paint's cut lab to isolate just my friend and me, thus eliminating the back ground. I simply what the silhouette. the above is of course is the negative,
Roy

[Dan Hintz]

I agree with you Dan that the file size will not change if inverted or not. He says the graphic size changes ( not file size ) if he changes it to positive. If this is the case I would think it is likely that he is inverting an image with a background instead of a vector or monochrome bitmap with a transparent background. Easier if we could see the file he is having the issue with. If he is noticing a size change in the graphic there is a logical reason to why it is happening.

Gotcha, we're on the same page now. And with Roy's latest post, my inclination is he wasn't setting the page size appropriately and stretching the image to match.

Roy, if you make the image length the circumference of the bottle, the image will be wrapped around the ENTIRE bottle. Gnereally, you only want 1/2 to 1/3rd of the bottle to have an engraved image. Set your page size to the circumference, but the image itself should only take up about the first half to third of the page... the rest should be blank/white space. Don't resize the image to your circumference, resize it separately, or cut and paste the image to your properly-sized page after the fact.