[denbruno_09]

I want to start up a business for engraving mirrors, glas plates and plexi. I already do photoengraving, and my customers as sometimes photos on mirrors etc. so I'm looking for a laserengraver that can do that. I have found the Laserpro Spirit very interesting, but can someone tell me how you engrave a photo onto a mirror. It very shiny and I think that the beam will reflect into the lasersource and destroy it. Am I right? You read also that you can engrave it from the back, bud how does that work. can someone explain that very clear.
regards
bruno

[Derek Kern]

There are two types of mirrors; bottom reflective and top reflective.

Bottom reflective are the type that are good for laser etching. You etch off the back side and then it shows threw on the front. You can then spray paint the back side so that you have a solid color show through. Or another idea is take a colored digital photo and print it onto mylar then engrave the same photo on the back side of the mirror and place the mylar photo so that its color shows through. You now have colored photo on mirror.

The Top reflective mirrors are ones that are used with you laser to reflect the laser beam. These are not for etching..

Use PhotoGrav 3.0 when etching photos onto mirror.

[denbruno_09]

thanks for the reply and explication.
Can you find the bottom reflect mirror in a normal company that makes mirrors, or are they specially made for laser engraving?

[Derek Kern]

These are the mirrors that you look at yourself in in your bathroom. There is nothing special about them for laser engraving, just regular old mirror that you can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot.

[denbruno_09]

maybe a stupid question, bud i looked at a mirror and at the back, there was a grey 'hardcover', no carton bud something solid. I can't imagine that you engrave that and it will show on the front. I know it is very stupid, bud I can't figure it out.
regards and thanks for the patience

[Derek Kern]

I guess I would need to see a picture. Or just take the hardcover off if you can. You want to engrave away only the thin layer of mirror on the backside.

[bisjoe]

thanks for the reply and explication.
Can you find the bottom reflect mirror in a normal company that makes mirrors, or are they specially made for laser engraving?

The mirrors that you buy at any store are bottom reflective. Top reflective optics mirrors as used in a laser are specialized items with few manufacturers.

[muqtadir]

How we can remove the chips from an engraved glass ? Any idea please.

[Derek Kern]

Take a brown paper bag and rub it on the surface where the chips are. They will disappear!

Derek Kern

[ImanCarrot]

One point- use a face mask and change it regularly, you don't want to be breathing glass dust. Oh, and you don't want it in your eyes either!

[muqtadir]

Thanks for both the gentlemen. The chips are not around the engraved area. These are stick inside the engraved areas.

[muqtadir]

Dear Nancy

Could u tell us more about the name of the software. Can you provide this free software to us ?

Thanks.

[MonoNeuron]

Hey all.
The laser burns away the backing of the mirror which also helps burn away the silver reflective coating which is very thin. I have to use all my 30 watts and engrave at 3 inches per second for it to work properly. Don't forget to reverse the picture image so it comes out properly looking from the front.

I use just plain old steel wool to clean up the back surface of glass debris and chips and wipe off with a clean cloth then paint. If you want to get creative then you can use different colours for different parts but I don't have the time to muck about with all that so they just get a coat of good quality matte black enamel paint.

You also have to disassemble the mirror from it's frame or just remove the backing material to expose the back of the mirror surface and engrave directly onto that surface.
Don't worry if you think you are asking a stupid question as we have all been down that road before and the only stupid question is the one you DON'T ask.
It's all a learning process but an interesting one.

here are some examples. ( I have posted them on your other thread too.)

[denbruno_09]

mono, thanks for the clear explication. Do you do engraving for business of for hobby? if for business, how do you set pricing to engrave a mirror with a picture of a client, so no standard piece, but something with some work on.
thanks

[MonoNeuron]

We engrave for the business but really don't sell too many. We have people interested in them all the time but there isn't too much money flying around here so people don't buy them very often. We have done a couple of orders for pictures of loved ones and sell them at $49.95 but we don't have much expense with the business so we sell them cheap. Some businesses in the USA sell them for $99.00 for a 1 foot square mirror tile. Our main sale for the laser is with Scrapbooking letters and names in Chipboard.
We use Photograv and Corel draw V X3

[KisKZ]

Hello!

A very good, absolutely free etching software (DotG) released now in Englis language!

If you want, test it!



You can find info here:

HobbyCnCArt news

Have a nice day!!

[TLHarrell]

Mono- Those mirror tiles look great. I've been doing the same, but with very mixed results. And mirror backing smells absolutely awful! Combination of burning off the grey coating and the burning metal smell... it's the worst!

For others who are starting on this and are confused by the material, it is basically just a sheet of ordinary glass with a coating on the back. When you burn through it completely, it is clear. For doing logos and lettering, it is fantastic. For images, I've had a tough time with getting the contrast right. What looks great on screen doesn't always register on the material.

[KisKZ]

We made some 1W diode laser set for a small group on www.hobbycncart.com.

Before tests I think this power not so mutch.
But...
Then I tried this on mirror and result is very impressive.
I'm made this with feedrate 100mm/min, with an 1W 808nm laser diode:

http://hobbycncart.com/_ph/16/2/116390915.jpg

[vincenttor]

Well i have been messing around with mirrors again,
Have ruined allot of mirrors again :boxing:

And still i do not get it how they become ugly when i paint them black.
Here are some results of the mirrors i made

i have no idea how much inch/per the speed is because its in percentage in my software ( retina engrave FSE)

put it on 8 % speed ( pretty slow)
14mA Almost max power

and here are the results. i am just not satisfied because if i look to the results mononeuron has those are great

Have cleaned them with steelwhool , real good tip indeed before painting.

This i painted white, was a test with halftone effect and it came out pretty good with less details.

made a mistake and the laser stopped hehe yo can see that why the txt is there



looks pretty good if the back has light shining on it.




few layers of black paint



http://www.mijnalbum.nl/GroteFoto-VOPAW3LJ.jpg
bigger pic, sorry its upsidedown

you see its not so nice anymore.

here is a better pic


as you can see it allmost is not visible anymore and looks not real nice

Really have no idea what to do about it, maybe testing on some other mirrors is the next step

[keebler303]

I think you need to invert your image before laser engraving. On mono's samples, the lighter parts are not engraved and the darker parts are. Yours is the reverse.

Matt