Has anyone laser engraved bluestone?

[Zsolt Paul]

I was asked to engrave an unpolished bluestone. I have my reservations if the engraving will stand out much at all... it gets worse... its 4" thick and 24x48. Gotta be super heavy, I wonder if it may damage my laser. I do have a 51x51 bed, but it's a pass through design (door on both ends), not even sure how we'd get it in there.

[AL Ursich]

Lots of Bluestone around here.... I am betting it does not engrave very well due to the flakiness of the surface. We have a old Bluestone Quarry on our property.

You could cut a sand blast mask.... Damage to the machine due to weight may not be worth putting the big piece in the machine.... testing with a Chip may be worth the time....

Bluestone is known for it's anti slip sand paper like finish when wet.

A Call to a local Grave Stone marker may be the ticket to sub the job out.

Good Luck,

AL

[Gary Hair]

Bluestone won't engrave well at all, it's too coarse. I sandblast a lot of it, just finished 4 large pieces this morning. Not as large as the one you have, but large anyway. It sandblasts really well and takes lithichrome paint very well.

Gary

[Steve Costa]

We built our house with extensive bluestone wainscoating on the exterior. We wanted a welcome piece at the front door so we took a piece to a monument shop where they "carved" what we wanted into it.

[Lisa Walter]

Ive engraved bluestone because it is plentiful in this area (I live next to a quarry). Took several passes over.....did a few pet headstones. Bluestone is pretty much the same color throughout the stone so it didn't show up well but you could probably color fill with something.