Laser etching slate

[Glen Beestone]

Hi all,
I'll be doing my house name sign soon and would appreciate any input from anyone who has experience of etching slate.
Also has anyone got any small pieces of slate I could do a test pass on ?

Cheers

Glen

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[Jon Davies]

How about giving the mini CNC mill a punt?

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Cheers,

Jon.

[Dan Nixon]

I'm sure you've asked this before.
(maybe it was someone else)

Yes, you can, but make sure you seal it somehow and do not wash or wipe it before doing so.
You have the same issue as Acrylic where it is the fine dust that is left behind that gives you the contrast, wash that away and you can barely make out any text you engrave.

If done correctly it does look quite good and you end up with nearly white text on natural slate background.
It does not look engraved though (unless you do many passes), more like chalk.

Dan

[Glen Beestone]

What would you seal it with ?
And does the sealant itself not dull down the contrast ?

G

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[Alistair MacDonald]

Will our mill work with slate or will it just shatter? If is can then the channels could be deeper and paint applied in them?

  Alistair

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[Glen Beestone]

I would imagine it will work but it would need the correct bits (diamond engraving) which we don't have.

Or rather we do have but only in Dremel size so it makes more sense to use the mini CNC

G

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[Dan Nixon]

Acrylic spray lacquer would be my first attempt.
It will reduce the contrast but will be much better than if it were washed.

Your other option if the surface of the slate is flat enough (which is unlikely) is paint the entire surface and have the laser remove the paint you don't want.
Although this is only worthwhile if your design is very intricate.

Dan

[David Pye]

Surely what you really want to achieve is "deep V groove " mill it and paint the channels?

I can't imagine that what is effectively acrylic-stuck-on-slate dust will have great longevity outsoora.

[Alistair MacDonald]

I now have the image of a Dremel bit mounted in the mill in my head. ;-)

What about Stuart's mini milling machine? Could that work?

  Alistair

[David Pye]

Possibly.  Not sure it has enough grunt to mill deeply, certainly not in a single pass.

It would be great to try it on the middle, and I would definitely be up for trying it if Glen wants to!

Issue is that you would need a bit that fits one of our range of collets, which I think to down to 3 or 4mm...

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[David Pye]

Middle = mill

[Glen Beestone]

I don't think it would need to be that deep.

An idea i have to try is cover the slate in masking tape and engrave through that to a depth of maybe half a mm

Paint with white paint.

Remove masking tape, cleans any rough edges with a scalpel and give the whole thing a protective laquer coat

G


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On 16/03/2018, 10:52 David Pye <davi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Surely what you really want to achieve is "deep V groove " mill it and paint the channels?

I can't imagine that what is effectively acrylic-stuck-on-slate dust will have great longevity outsoora.

On Fri, 16 Mar 2018, 10:50 Dan Nixon, <danns...@gmail.com> wrote:

Acrylic spray lacquer would be my first attempt.
It will reduce the contrast but will be much better than if it were washed.

Your other option if the surface of the slate is flat enough (which is unlikely) is paint the entire surface and have the laser remove the paint you don't want.
Although this is only worthwhile if your design is very intricate.

Dan

[Alistair MacDonald]

Sounds like a plan. My only concern is the paint might get under the tape capillary action, but I guess that is not a huge issue.

  Alistair

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[David Pye]

I was thinking vee grooving to maybe 5mm but I am heavy handed ;-)

[Glen Beestone]

 

i don't think my slate is even that thick !

it would be out the back of it

 

Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 at 11:53 AM
From: "David Pye" <davi...@gmail.com>
To: north-ea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Re: [Makers] Re: Laser etching slate

[Alistair MacDonald]

I thought we were talking thinner as well, although most of the ones I can think of are thicker. This is why I was worried about milling it splitting or shattering.

  Alistair

[Glen Beestone]

Should be able to avoid that if I use very lighr passes with the spray and build it up with drying time between. It won't need much paint at all. Just enough to create contrast.

G

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[Sam Barlow]

I've been thinking about similar things lately since a previous thread about engraving on stone... These are cool: https://www.epiloglaser.com/resources/sample-club/slate-coasters-laser-engraving.htm

Looks like there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with slate. Glen, please share some pics once you're done so I can be nosey! :)

[Glen Beestone]

Here are some tests i did over the weekend.

fears that once the dust was washed out of the engraving lines the image would have no contrast seem to be unfounded. there is very little dust produced when engraving slate. it just seem to to vapourise ( or it is getting extracted)

 

the image is quite visible even after washing and is more down to surface disruption. because of this you don't need to go deep with an engraving. in fact too deep looks bad

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gsH3HeyX1S9jl65A3

 

the images in the link are

 

top left - power 66 speed 300

top right - power 66, speed 200

bottom left - power 66 speed 50 - this is the worst the engraving is deep more like a cut and the  cut is  discoloured from burning

bottom right -  same settings as top right but painted. the .  The tile was covered in masking tape first and the iamges was angraved throuh the tape burning it away. I them did a few light passes with car paint before peelinmg the mask away.

 

 

i'll proabably go for the painted version for the full house plaque i'm making. Knowing that even if it's weatherd away,  then the underlying engraving is also fine

.

 

 

Glen

 

 

 

 

 

Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 at 4:07 PM
From: "Sam Barlow" <saelb...@gmail.com>
To: "North East Makers" <north-ea...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [Makers] Re: Laser etching slate

I've been thinking about similar things lately since a previous thread about engraving on stone... These are cool: https://www.epiloglaser.com/resources/sample-club/slate-coasters-laser-engraving.htm

Looks like there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with slate. Glen, please share some pics once you're done so I can be nosey! :)

[Alistair MacDonald]

Impressive. I now want to give it a go myself.

  Alistair

[Sam Barlow]

They look great, Glen! 

Did you just have some left over tiles to use? Have you cut the tiles at all? 

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[Glen Beestone]

These are drinks coasters I bought from Wilkinson's in town. They can be found on the kitchen section on the first floor.

4 drinks coasters for £3

They also do heart shaped coasters and larger place mats.

I bought these to practice on but It's the place mat size I'll be using as the house plaque, laser etched and mounted on a wooden backboard

G

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[David Pye]

Well, they're excellent, aren't they?

To: "North East Makers" <north-east-makers@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: Re: Re: [Makers] Re: Laser etching slate

I've been thinking about similar things lately since a previous thread about engraving on stone... These are cool: https://www.epiloglaser.com/resources/sample-club/slate-coasters-laser-engraving.htm

Looks like there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with slate. Glen, please share some pics once you're done so I can be nosey! :)

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[Glen Beestone]

Yes I'm pretty happy with them.
I need to do some test passes on the lettering next
Before going full size

G

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[Brian Degger]

FYI

Poundland currently has slate tablemats! £1/piece

Cheers

B

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Brian Degger

twitter: @drbrian

http://makerspace.org.uk

http://transitlab.org

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[Jon Davies]

I asked this in the second email but fell on deaf ears it seems...

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Cheers,

Jon.

[Jon Davies]

Glen, best consult Stuart Wheater about his own experiences using the mini CNC for engraving slate.  Not got the right bits from what Mark was telling me, so may well have the grunt.

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Cheers,

Jon.

[Iain Yarnall]

I saw some spirals Stuart did on the engraver. The results on the engraver were good but didn't provide the contrast that the laser has turned out to give. It would give you a nice channel to paint though.

The laser does seem a lot easier but it's a different effect.

Cheers,

Iain.