Anyone engrave on a brick?

[Arjan Smitshoek]

Wow Angus,
it has been a while ago that you made this brick, but do you recall the settings. and what machine did you use?

[Jerry Hay]

I burned this one in 2007 and it still looks great! I didn't add anything to it at all just lasered it at hi power at lo speed.

[Bruce Dorworth]

I think it must be the beer, try as I may, I could not see the brick. :<)

Bruce

[Karen Kocik]

Hi Gary, I've been browsing for information on how to adhere an engraved metal plate (small) onto an old brick. Can you tell me what you used to do it? I've heard gorilla glue is good. The brick will be hung from a stand.

Thanks, Karen

Okay, I know this will probably not help, but I engraved a plate that we adhered to the front of a brick. Our customer gave this brick to someone he knew that was getting married. The inscription read:

"This is a starter brick for your home. May this marriage be long, fruitful and blessed."

He got many comments about where he got that from and he was most pleased. Just another idea I thought I'd share.

[Mark Ross]

Better be careful with your kids, someone actually did patent a method for swinging on a swing. However, they did it to have an example of just how truly broken our patent system is. Welp, I am off to trademark the word patent and sue the pants off a lot of people...

[Dave Sheldrake]

From memory the only thing the patent office won't accept is perpetual motion machines, past that...well anything is possible

cheers

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

Better be careful with your kids, someone actually did patent a method for swinging on a swing. However, they did it to have an example of just how truly broken our patent system is. Welp, I am off to trademark the word patent and sue the pants off a lot of people...

Here's a patent for a stick:
http://www.google.com/patents/US6360693

Lucky for us all, it fell into the public domain back in 2010 due to failure to pay the maintenance fees.

[Chuck Stone]

I think I read that in the court transcript of
Ross Eugene Long III vs Mother Nature

[Guy Hilliard]

Here's one I did a while ago on my 40w ULS X660. No coating / fill / paint... just straight burn the brick.
The Brick is an all clay "Brampton Brick".
Brick.gif

[Vicki Rivrud]

Hi Guy,
Nice job.
I engrave bricks as well. The key is the composition of the brick. All clay bricks when lasered turn the silica into glass and engrave the nice crystal black. Vitrification! I also do concrete bricks and pavers and vector cut not raster/engrave. I mask them and then spray with Lithichrome black less expensive then Cermark. I don't think the Cermark is dark enough on the concrete and some of my earlier bricks have the efflorescence working through the Cermark as it comes to the surface, a natural occurrence with concrete made products. I could sand-blast them further if I needed to but have as yet - my 150 watt Chinese laser does a nice job.

Happy lasering,
Vicki

[Jesse Anderson]

I noticed that polished hard surfaces like Rock, slate, and marble will always come out great. ""Unless its a white/wrong color"

I have experimented with bricks and have gotten the same results you have had. So i had the idea of adding a coat of clear coat. It makes the brick appear sort of wet and slimy. But when you engrave in it you can get that extra bit of contrast. It it was on a wall that was untouched it would work fine. If the brick are meant to be walked over then this suggestion would probably not work that well. Unless u experiment with some kind of epoxy resin...

I have gotten good results and bad results. So i cannot give good advice i can just give you my experience.

So take my two cents and make your own 4 cent conclusion. Clear coat on rock, brick and slate produces a better results some times.

Then again i did not do much research or practice with this theory.

[Mark Ross]

I just received my trademark on brick, so everyone needs to start sliding me some "cheddar". LOL. I have an idea for a product that I am going to look into. Funny how companies can patent things like rounded corners on smart phones. I guess it is how much money you have to scare someone. I know one guy that has had about a dozen businesses all doing the exact same thing. He violates a so called "patent" gets sued, goes out of business and sets up across the street or across town. Patents have their place, don't get me wrong, but sometimes, come on, common sense should prevail, but then again, we are talking about people that are about ready to hit up Montel Williams for a payday loan to get big gubbmint running. Sorry, I know, off topic.

[Jesse Anderson]

I hate the word patent. Just another example of loop holes. If will use my laser to do any and all jobs. No questions asked. I have my own legal loop holes that will exempt me from getting into any sort of trouble. I can imagine that some one else would get into trouble b4 me... Did you know there is a patent on running wires through clothing for music and media purposes. Lets say you are jogging and have your MP3 player microphone wise running under your sweater to your ear. Its patented...... The guy that "Supposedly" did this on shark tank. If my memory serves me correct the guy that was on the show own several patents to stupid ordinary things. Makes his money by collecting royalties off of companies that did not think of it first. I could be wrong about what I saw on shark tank. But I am pretty certain i remember the guy having a patent for the idea of running wires and inserting blue tooth into clothing... I think I remember a few of the sharks calling him a slime ball/ dirt ball. Because he was the kind of person that would waist their time in court with stuff. And having to waist money on a trivial smoke and mirrors patents..... I could be wrong. This episode aired a long time ago.

[Kev Williams]

Harley Davidson tried to patent their "sound". Don't know if they got the patent, but I'll bet scientific testing would prove every Harley tested would make a different sound than the next one.

I remember I was a bit miffed when Woody Harrelson patented the round towel. I heard not long ago he lost a lot of $$ on that deal.

As for engraving stuff like bricks-- I tried engraving a piece of black onyx in my 25w Universal. The onxy put out a fireworks display like I've never seen. My lens is still beat up from the flying pieces of that stone. The closest thing to brick I've ever tried since has been black granite and white marble...

[Mark Ross]

Harley was refused a patent on the sound. They have it copyrighted. Nobody else can make that Harley sound. Potato potato potato potato vroom vroom....