Share Something About Laser Engraving on Glass

Marking glass with a laser is fast, easy, clean and doesn’t require a mask, film work or water. Most important, it doesn’t require the product to be clamped down since there is no physical contact with the product being engraved. If it can be positioned properly, it can be lasered. Lasered glass can include almost anything you can generate on a computer screen. Text, photographs and artwork can all be lasered. Lasers are especially good at turning out highly detailed artwork—artwork that would be too complex for a mask or on products that have complex surfaces that wouldn’t allow a mask to be applied.

 

    Lasers have some real limitations. One is the type of glass that can be lasered. Any glass with metal in it is suspect. Although most colored glass will laser, there are times when so much metal has been added that it causes the laser to “skip” over an area of the glass. No matter how many times you laser it, those spots just will not mark.

 

 

    In fact, the best glass by far for laser engraving is the cheapest glass you can lay your hands on. This really inexpensive glass has little or no metal content and usually marks very well. Those imported Christmas ornaments, wine glasses from Wal-Mart, inexpensive plates and platters from glass supply houses and beer mugs from the dollar store almost always laser like a dream.

 

 

    Lasers are easiest to use on a flat surface. That is, they require a specific focal length or distance between the lens and the surface being marked. When the item to be marked is curved, a laser is very limited. When engraving steins, wine glasses, vases, wine bottles and the like, using a rotary attachment can make the task much easier.

 

 

    Because lasers use a lens, they have something called “depth of field.” This is the distance between the nearest point of sharp focus and the farthest point. Outside this narrow range the laser spot goes out of focus and consequently the image becomes blurry. Anything within the lens depth of field will laser engrave on glass and appear to be in focus. This gives us the ability to work with products that have a slight curvature to them such as plates, wine glasses, etc.

 

 

    Many engravers like to place a layer of wet newspaper or paper towel over the glass to keep the heat from radiating as much. This too is intended to reduce the number of shards. I find it very helpful when marking wine bottles or using higher power lasers. To try this technique, wrap or cover the item with a piece of newspaper and then spray liberally with water from a spray bottle (add a drop or two of dishwashing liquid to make the water absorb into the paper faster and more evenly). If the paper begins to dry out while engraving, just stop the laser and spray again but do not physically touch the item being marked.