PDA

View Full Version : Making progress



doug king
11-20-2009, 1:54 AM
Well I am new to the forum and have been posting about the progress as I learn and grow. In a previous post I mentioned that a local granite company gave me pallets and pallets of scrap they had. In an effort to repay them something I took a piece about 18 x 10 and etched their company name in a nice font for them. I dropped it off this morning and told the owner I appreciated his willingness to let me just have the extra. He called me about 3pm this afternoon and asked me if I would want be an outsource for his business. As the story unfolds he took the piece I gave him in the morning and cut it down to just the size of the name I put on the granite. He placed the newly cut piece with the etch on his counter and every customer that he worked with today asked about where and how much he could get things on their granite....

It is great to fill a void and make a few bucks at the same time... This should prove to be great filler work......

Doug

Dan Hintz
11-20-2009, 6:35 AM
As long as you can support the size (and weight) of the piece they want, you're golden.

James Stokes
11-20-2009, 10:26 AM
One thing you will get hit with is the differant colors of granite. The laser does not work well on all granites.

Dan Hintz
11-20-2009, 10:36 AM
Meh, color fill that bad boy and you'll be good :)

James Stokes
11-20-2009, 4:15 PM
No not really.

Dan Hintz
11-20-2009, 6:21 PM
No not really.
Care to elaborate?

James Stokes
11-21-2009, 7:57 AM
Some granites have a large mica content. This will give differant engraving depths. When you try to color fill that you get a very splochy fill. Depending on what you use for your color fill. Also some granites will not show a color fill because of all the other colors in the granite. To make those work you have to make an outline around the engraving on those with either a black or white fill or your lettering will never show up.
In the monument shops when they engrave a tombstone they pull the stencil for the letters on the inside, after that is etched and color filled that stencil will go back over the lettering. You then pull the stencil for the outline, blast it then color fill with the contrasting paint. That is the only way you will get readable lettering.

Dan Hintz
11-22-2009, 12:03 PM
Good point about the mica... that would certainly have an effect.

Bill Cunningham
11-22-2009, 8:01 PM
If the fleck is not too large it's use able, some scrap stuff I have picked up have big flakes mica or quartz in the surface. It etched poorley, and paint won't even stick to it.. This is about the largest fleck I have had decent results with..
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=51755&d=1165202384