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Glass etching

9K views 41 replies 15 participants last post by  rwl7532 
#1 ·
Does anyone use their CNC for etching glass with diamond bits? If so what speed what bits what depth? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thinking about investing in a small CNC foe engraving on small boxes and if possible etching logos in glass.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Hydroflouric acid is nasty stuff that it is best to stay away from COMPLETELY!. If you get it on your skin, any skin, it will eat right through to the bone marrow.

With that, said, there are many ways to etch glass; acids, blasting, and mechanical etching. Most hobby type shops sell kits to acid etch, I have used templates or even simple taped up areas and a hand held spot blaster. Texture will depend on the medium used; fineness of sand, Black Beauty, etc.

I can't speak for the mechanical means. However, bits are obviously available and capable of performing this operation, as linked by UglySign. The only thing is, that, this is a "drag bit". it might be good for line etching but not for etching a field. I'm sure that there is a learning curve and I'm not quite sure how well tempered glass would take to a mechanical means without fracturing.
 
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#3 ·
keep in mind that glass is nick sensitive and once the glass surface is scratched it is subject to breaking....
 
#5 ·
I think the commercial method for etching is sandblasting. You lay Mac-tac on the glass where you don't want it etched. No chemicals that way.
 
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#8 ·
I'm sorry for posting that drag knife thing.
I am bent on glue-chipped glass and thats what I always think of.
Etching is nice but I find that glue-chipped glass is more appealing.
Once my machine gets here i'm going to try it out.

As for the drag knife on glass, you could make some nifty
fills if needed and come along with the etching creams or
mask it for mini-blasting. Lots of possibilities but I may have
gone the wrong direction to the topic.

Anyways... either do hand masking or have it cut and you
could also use a mini sand blaster. Diamond Drag will ruin masking I believe.
Here's a cheapie using Aluminum Oxide abrasive.
Badger Mini Sandblasting Kit - BLICK art materials

+1 on the Hydroflouric Acid >:)
 
#9 ·
Personally I think it would take a whole lot of glass etching with a CNC before it would be worthwhile. Years back a bought a glass etching kit, to etch some glassware for my then dau-in-law. Not sure what the etch was, it was in a small glass bottle. Applied the patterns, put on the etch with a small brush, waited a few minutes, rinsed it off with water. Came out beautiful. You could get ready made patterns, or material to make your own custom designs. I did 8 glasses in probably 5-10 minutes. I could buy a whole lot of etching kits for even the cost of a hobby CNC.
 
#14 ·
Nice work.

That's the stuff I was trying to think of. Should still have most of a bottle around somewhere, but more likely it's lost forever. Can get some pretty fine detail with that stuff too, with a fine tip brush. If I ever get the urge to make some more custom glasses, that's the stuff I'll use.
 
#13 ·
Maybe I am going the wrong direction with CNC etching. I have had a local trophy shop etch logos into glass.
Recently the business changed hands and this has become too costly. Maybe I should be asking what is the
best way to make a mask.
Add a vinyl plotter to your arsenal for a mask. Im sure there
are smaller units out there you could pick up, load in the
vinyl mask, cut it, weed it out and start etching/blasting etc.
Xacto blades can do so much by hand and could get discouraging.
Vinyl plotters can only go so small before losing detail and alot of
stuff is small. Especially for trophies.

Are there other methods for super small graphics? Probably Laser?

Glastar has a neat mini sandblast system
that I've been interested in for years.
 
#20 ·
If you do get a spring loaded diamond drag bit you will want a good one, they are not all created equal. A good one is expensive but a cheap one could come with a lot of headaches. Some companies make cheaper models and there again you want the best one they make.
 
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#30 ·
They make precision dental sand blasters that are ideal for doing glassware, etc. A Google Search brings up a lot of them. Most are small enclosures for lab work and run about $400, but there are also some of these blasters that come without the cabinets. The Raysist sheets are contact exposed with UV light and then washed off, leaving the image that you want. Stick it to a piece of glassware, shield the rest of it from the abrasive, and blast away. The micro fine sand leaves a nice frosted effect.

I almost got into custom carving and engraving 20+ years ago. I bought the modified dentist drill air powered carver (turns 400,000 rpm and uses 1/16" shank bits). I made a few carved/engraved wooden projects with it, but I never bought the micro fine sand blaster unit I had been giving serious thought to engraving VIN numbers in the bottom corners of car windows and such to differ theft. I also had planned on engraving decorative displays such as can now be seen in divider panels of restaurants, etc. where the image is just frosted into the glass. This was a fresh new field for this at the time.

There is a good demand for this, even now, but I got into photo retouching using Adobe Photoshop and other photo enhancing software instead. Don't believe anything that you see in photos, because I can make it in the photo when it never existed that way in real life. None of the women models in advertising photos are as perfect as they look, because I was one of the ones who removed their moles, scars, and wrinkles to make them look younger and perfect.

I had a woman of about 50 bring me a portrait photo of herself, asking if I could make her look much younger. After a bit of discussion about how much younger, she said "do your best". I managed to take about 25 years off of her (a fine looking woman at either age). She came back a week later and when I showed he what I had done, she said "that's perfect. I want two copies, one for me and one to send to my high school reunion, and I'm not going. Let them eat their hearts out". We both had a good laugh over it, and I'm certain that it caused quite a stir at the class reunion.

Charley
 
#31 ·
I've worked with Rayzist. Great for small repeated items.
Or learn to cut by hand. I used beige Contact© paper on the attached.
 

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#36 · (Edited)
Quote:
I had a woman of about 50 bring me a portrait photo of herself, asking if I could make her look much younger. After a bit of discussion about how much younger, she said "do your best". I managed to take about 25 years off of her (a fine looking woman at either age). She came back a week later and when I showed he what I had done, she said "that's perfect. I want two copies, one for me and one to send to my high school reunion, and I'm not going. Let them eat their hearts out". We both had a good laugh over it, and I'm certain that it caused quite a stir at the class reunion.



That is funny, Charley.
Herb
 
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