engraving candles

[Don Necaise]

Hello everyone

Has anyone laser engraved wax candles and color filled that can share a few tips. I am in the process of trying this and need some tips.


Thanks in advance

[James Stokes]

It generally does not work with a laser but have heard if you freeze the candles first you can engrave them. Have not tried freezing them myself but have tried them unfrozen and the wax simply melted in place and stayed in the engraving so you could not tell anything had been done.

[onur cakir]

It generally does not work with a laser but have heard if you freeze the candles first you can engrave them. Have not tried freezing them myself but have tried them unfrozen and the wax simply melted in place and stayed in the engraving so you could not tell anything had been done.

didnt worked for me too, melted candle filled the engraved parts.

[Nancy Laird]

Since lasering is a burning process, it logically follows that burning a candle will not result in good engraving. Freezing may work, but I doubt it.

[Janet Liddiard]

I also wanted to engrave candles, and had seen one done in a retail store. I tried a number of different power/speed settings. Some just melted the wax and others were okay, but didn't show enough contrast. I haven't yet tried color fill. I'll be interested to hear other people's suggestions.

[nancy barry]

I agree with Nancy L. that laser engraving a candle may not work. I would be concerened about a fire as the flash point for most candle wax is in the 200* range. I think the temp of the laser beam is a lot hotter than this. I used to be a chandler and had a wax fire ONCE! NEVER AGAIN! SCARY! and almost impossible to control. So, do be CAREFUL and make sure you have the correct fire extinguisher at hand should it be necessary.

I think the engraving could be done with a rotary cutter/cnc type machine. The one I saw definitely had a grove that could have been color-filled. Regular hobby paint might work in the groove only. It just peels off if used to paint a large area. Also might try rubb-n-buff type product as this is wax base.

good luck,
nancyB

[Tim Bateson]

I spent the last hour trying - frozen and non-frozen. Speed 30% - 100% / Power 2%-100%. With & without air assist.

It cannot be done with a laser! It melts and re-hardens way too fast.

[Frank Corker]

...are you guys bored or something? Here is a really good tip, practice on butter and save loads on candle wax :D

[Rodne Gold]

Frozen choc bars engrave ok :)

[Rodne Gold]

The idea with candles is to make moulds that "add on" wax designs can be cast into and these gizmos are stuck to the candle. Its also quite easy to make big moulds for the candle itself to be cast into and one can perhaps do designs on the wall of the mould (obviously making sure they release)

There are waxes that engrave better than candle wax which is very soft , and that is jewellery and dental wax. But the laser doesnt work well on these either

CnC engravers will do the job tho and the way to colour fill is to use a mask on the wax you are engraving and fill the engraved portions with coloured waxes , using a cloth dipped in boiling water to remove excess , then strip off the marking.
If using a CnC bit for engraving wax , you need one with a VERY large back clearance so the wax swarf can easily be cleared. A 1/4 round D/V bit is prefered over the traditional 1/2 round D/V bit used for engraving.

[Finn Espen Gundersen]

Reviving this old thread to make you all aware of this youtube video posted in May: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtjsJYntlUA
On the webpage they say they are among the very few doing this with lasers. Which seems reasonable since many thought it couldn't be done.
It is apparent from the video that they are set for cut (i.e. not raster), but of course they may use an assist gas or have the candle covered in some way before lasering. Although the original candle sticker seems visible on the bottom. It would be fun to make this work. Any ideas?

[Glen Monaghan]

It appears that the difference is others were trying to engrave a plain candle, while this looks like a dark wax candle covered with a thin layer of light colored was, and the laser is vaporizing away the light colored wax to create the design, same idea as with typical plastic name tags where a thin top layer is vaporized to reveal a different colored core layer.

[Joe Hillmann]

Looking at the website attached to that video, that company has a yag and I would guess that is what they are using to engrave the candles (although that may be a galvo CO2). If you can't get candles to engrave I would suggest to try using a masking and spray paint.

[Joe Hillmann]

I just tried engraving on some candles with a yag and had no luck. I tried a yellow, a red and a brown candle thinking color may make a difference. The laser didn't touch the yellow or red no matter how high I had the power and the brown melted before it engraved.

[Dennis Watson]

Look closely, its a Walmart candle. But interesting in how he is doing it. Looks great.

[Matt Turner (physics)]

I haven't tried this, but given others' experiences with the wax melting but staying in the lasered area, I had an idea. I'm wondering if it would work to put some pigment down on the wax, so that when the wax melts the pigment becomes embedded in it, but the pigment in non-lasered areas could be wiped away afterward.

[Joe Pelonio]

...are you guys bored or something? Here is a really good tip, practice on butter and save loads on candle wax :D
I think here butter is a lot more expensive than candles.;)

[Vicki Rivrud]

Hi Finn,
I like the video! I will try to vector etch a candle now . . . seems like that's the better way to approach the project.

Thanks for posting,
Vicki Rivrud

[Dennis Watson]

A little off topic, but I have seen videos of lasers that looks like their actually writing rather than bi-direction, what is that?

[Joe Hillmann]

That is a galvo head. They are most common on Yag's but there are some CO2's that also use them. Instead of the whole carriage moving to direct the laser beam, the laser is reflected off a mirror that pivots just a tiny bit to direct the beam where it has to go. Galvo heads can be much much faster than flying gantry type lasers because the parts don't move nearly as far to move the beam and the parts are lighter so they can move even faster. In some cases what a flying head laser can do in a minute a galvo head of the same power can do in three or four seconds. Although that speed comes at the cost of engraving area. The engraving area may only be a 3 inch circle.

This video show how a galvo head works and shows the inside parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK14SaaYMoc

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK14SaaYMoc)

[Dennis Watson]

Thanks Joe. Good explanation.

[Dan Hintz]

In addition to Joe's comments... if the beam is following the path of the lettering, that's vector engraving (as opposed to raster engraving where it goes back and forth). The galvo head just allows the laser to be aimed in an arbitrary direction rather than strictly side-to-side.

[Joe Sanchez]

Don,

The candles that I have seen engraved have been done with a rotary engraver and usually the candles are taken from a cold environment onto the engraver. They can be color-filled (with spray paint) but you better have a masking on them so when you paint them you keep the color in the recessed lines. I would not try to color-fill it with typical color-fill (JDS Color-fill), you would never be able to rub it out without it smearing the color on the remaining part of the candle. I did sandblast one and had decent luck (but not in your sandblaster). I did it with a siphon system outside and it looked fine, but then I spray painted it. I think its way too much work and I agree with everyone else, the laser is not the tool you want to use for this task.

[Glen Monaghan]

I agree with everyone else, the laser is not the tool you want to use for this task.
The video appears to have a thin, light colored layer of wax over a darker core, and the laser was just vector vaporizing that cap layer to reveal the design. Seems like the laser is a workable tool for that.

[Chuck Stone]

The video appears to have a thin, light colored layer of wax over a darker core, and the laser was just vector vaporizing that cap layer to reveal the design. Seems like the laser is a workable tool for that.

I wonder if that coating is actually wax .. Wouldn't you have the same problem?
If it was some ablative material for the outer layer, that would make more sense in my
head, but I haven't tried.