Help engraving glass mug...

[Tim Neal]

I need to engrave a beer mug for a Christmas present. I purchased what I think are very nice Anchor Hocking mugs. Although I purchased a backup, I really don't want to "practice" on such a nice item, so I'm hoping to get it right the first time. I'm looking for suggestions for how to go about it. I have read some related posts here, but I wanted to get feedback based on my specific equipment...Epilog 50W with rotary attachment.

Please comment on any or all of the following.
power and speed settings; pre-treatment (wet news paper, dishwashing liquid, etc...); post laser treatment.

Thanks.

-Tim

[Dave Spitzer]

Tim,

I have used wet newspaper, dish soap, and dry. A very light coat of dish soap worked very well. The dry was not so bad but I'm not sure if that could lead to cracking or breaking the glass.

I also went to Walmart and picked up some cheap glasses and vases to practice on.

Dave

[Andrea Weissenseel]

I also use a light film of water with a drop of dish soap.

Why don't you practice engraving glass with your rotary on some sample glasses. That would make you more comfortable engraving your mugs, instead of using some given settings.

Andrea

[john passek]

I go to thrift stores and second hand places to pick up cheap and sometimes really nice glasses . I will look for beer mugs coffee mugs and various odd peices of glss wear, mirrors etc.
all good for practicing because they are cheap.
I have the 50 w epilog aswell and have found the soap to work best for me but you can't leave it too long or it dryes out, you need to laser it wet.
I use 5 - 10 speed and 100 power on most glass, but you need to be carefull with the thinner wine glasses.

[Martin Boekers]

The dollar store in my area has tons of mugs right now for, yes $1, the same mugs I was paying $3ea at Garden Ridge.

If you mess one up save it and use it for further testings. I sometimes put
masking on it to see placement.

If the mug is a large one I have had issues for etching both sides. Since
the handle hits the I-Beam you have to turn it around for the second side.
Sometimes the weight and leverage of the handle causes it to slip since
you can only clamp from one side. I tried double stick tape, wiped the
rubber gaskets, you name it but still had some slipage.

If the mug has panelled sides on the bottom half I use a metal ring clamp
to round it off. Works well.

I position the mug so the handle is perpendicular to the table, I use the
bottom support rail on the rotary as a quick guide.


Marty

[Tim Neal]

I will definately go look for dollar store glasses to practice on. I guess I rejected that idea because I thought the glass would be different enough that the settings would not be relevant.

Most seem to like soap, so I'll go with that.

John - I don't have any experience with this but 5 - 10 speed and 100 power seems kind of aggressive according to some of the othe posts I've read. The mugs I purchased are rather thick walled so I don't think I'll have a problem with cracking. I could start with thoses settings, then crank the power down, or the speed up if necessary.

More comments welcome...

[Martin Boekers]

I will definately go look for dollar store glasses to practice on. I guess I rejected that idea because I thought the glass would be different enough that the settings would not be relevant.

Most seem to like soap, so I'll go with that.

John - I don't have any experience with this but 5 - 10 speed and 100 power seems kind of aggressive according to some of the othe posts I've read. The mugs I purchased are rather thick walled so I don't think I'll have a problem with cracking. I could start with thoses settings, then crank the power down, or the speed up if necessary.

More comments welcome...

I run 75watts and I typically run the glass at 85 power/ 100 speed at 600freq, it works well for me, but as you know others have diifferent
experiences with glass. Liquid dish soap works for me.

Marty

[Dan Hintz]

I'll add my two cents, as I usually do when glass engraving comes up.

I tried all of the tricks... wet paper, dish soap, etc... and none made any appreciable difference in the engraving (your results may vary). I'm able to achieve extremely fine detail in all types of glass, from dollar store junk to fine china, using nothing but a gentle air assist and a decent dust collector airstream to get rid of the grit. In the past, many have claimed leaded crystal was not possible (simply repeating what others have claimed without trying it themselves, maybe?), but I have no problems doing it whatsoever.

I typically stay around 333 dpi. 5-10S at 100P is entirely too much power for a 50W cartridge. I don't have my settings in front of me, but I know I run at 100S and probably in the 30-40P range (on a 60W cartridge).

[Dee Gallo]

As long as you have 3/8" clearance at the top before the handle starts, you can use the rotary clip without handle-hitting problems. Simply remove the outer drive wheels (two small screws on each wheel) and push the mug as far into the clip as you can without touching the bumper.

hope this helps, dee

[john passek]

Why did I know there would be something wrong with my post. :(
I simply stated what works for me.

Tim
If you have an owners manual there is a list of settings that give you a starting point. If you don't you can find it on the Epilog site.
For glass their settings are 30 sp - 100 pwr at 300 dpi.
You will need to play with the settings to find what works for you because each machine and brand will be a little different.
Good Luck and have fun.

[Frank Corker]

I certainly would recommend what Dee has mentioned about changing the wheel to singles for the handle clearance, it's sometimes very effective. Other things to do, why don't you just put masking tape around it, turn the pointer on and dry run with the lid up. If it looks like it's going to work, put the power setting to something so low that it will only engrave the masking tape. If it shows on the masking tape, then you are good to go. Slippage is a big problem with glass mugs because of that whacking great glass handle so consider these things too.

Avoid slippage on the rotary by giving it a gentle rub with wet/dry paper on the rotary wheel ring rubbers. Another way to avoid slippage is to tape the top and bottom of the glass where it meets with the rubber rings on the rotary and avoid water coming into contact with those areas. Add a small bag of sand inside the mug to add weight to the glass to give it extra gravity. Also, avoid using that stupid little extra wheel that they give you with the rotary, quite often that will change the rotation of the glass and distort the engraving.

[Mike Tavares]

HI everyone,

I've been a member for a little while now but don't have too much time to come on the site.

Anyhow, I do hundreds of beer mugs weekly. The machine I have is a 45w Epilgog Helix.

I run (raster) all my glass @ 600dpi 100% power and 25% Speed
Mode= Standard. Leave the frequency at 2500Hz------I NEVER USE WATER, DISH SOAP, OR ANYTHING ELSE!!----

I've tried all.------no difference at all that I can see with the naked eye???

What I recommend is set all your art work to 70% black on a grayscale using the corel draw colour pallete and that's it.

No need to complicate things.

When running wine glasses decrease the power from 100% to anywhere between: 80% & 90% leave the speed setting the same (decrease power depending on thickness of glass) ----with very little practise this can be achieved. --------Leave all other settings the same.


Of course different machines might very in settings but not significantly.

I've been doing this now for 15 years on different machines including New Hermes and Universal Laser systems when they first came out--- Always works well.

For Set-Up---- I just use an old mug and colour it with black permanent Marker and laser. You can always see exactly where your image or work will be placed. You can do this over and over, again and again ----no need to tape at all--- as long as you have an old extra one (chew toy!)

Never had major slippage problems. Can easily be corrected by placing a "wide elastic rubber band" on the rim of the glass as so it has contact with the rubber on the drive wheel. Just make sure the elastic rubber band is wide enough and even right around the mouth of the glass---(will never slipp --rubber on rubber---very simple) you can even dampen with water the rubber band and or the rubber on the drive wheels (I also remove the extra wheels--& use the clip)

Here's another little trick I use when there isn't too much clearance with the handle of the mug and the pin(axle) of the drive wheel---(where the second wheels sit on)-- when removed this small pin sticks out and somtimes can interfere with the mug handle while spinning causing the mug to jerk and distort your work.--------

This is how you can get around that-----

When art is set for engraving,---- with the lid open on the engraver, press start and then hit stop or pause. Place your mug in where you would like the engraving to start. (the mug handle should clear the axle or pin) Then hit go or start.



I use these steps for all glass drink wear.


Hope this info helps you out.

Cheers!


MIke T.

[Dan Hintz]

I'm home now, so I checked my settings... 100S/60P/333dpi. As Mike suggested, I typically end up at 70% black.

[Tim Neal]

Wow! Great feedback. I thank you all. I'm definately going in to this with more confidence than I had before. I'll be hitting the dollar store tomorrow to pick up some cheap practice glass. I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks again.

[Tim Neal]

I thank everyone who offered advice. Just posting this to prove I got it done. Yes...I ruined one mug along the way...handle issue as you probably can guess. But in the end I was able to produce what I wanted. The engraving may look a little confusing, that's because there is also an engraving on the opposite side of the mug. Laser was set to 30 speed, and 100 power. Image was set to 70% Black in corelDraw. No wet newspaper, or dishwashing liquid was used.
173638

[Frank Corker]

Great job Tim, that's about as good as they get, although I disagree about not using the wet paper, there is definitely a nice smooth finish with it.

[Dan Hintz]

Tim,.

A suggestion for taking pics in the future... fill the glass with liquid to avoid getting what's behind the glass (another engraving). In this case, I'd fill it with a dark beer... which has the added advantage of you get to enjoy the beer once the photoshoot is done.

[William Milligan]

Good work. We did a bunch of these mugs for a local Air Force Squadron's booster club. Tried the wet paper at first and then started running them without paper/windex/water or anything and there wasn't any difference that we could tell.

[Tim Neal]

Great job Tim, that's about as good as they get, although I disagree about not using the wet paper, there is definitely a nice smooth finish with it.

Thanks Frank. Now that I have some $1 glasses and a ruined mug that I can play with, I'll give it a try using the same settings to see if it makes a difference for me. Can you tell me the settings you used. My laser is 50W but I'll try to match you settings as close as possible.

[Tim Neal]

Tim,.

A suggestion for taking pics in the future... fill the glass with liquid to avoid getting what's behind the glass (another engraving). In this case, I'd fill it with a dark beer... which has the added advantage of you get to enjoy the beer once the photoshoot is done.

Thanks Dan. That's a good trick to know...and I'm 100% positive that beer must work a lot better than water so I'll definately have to got hat route!

[Martin Boekers]

Thanks Dan. That's a good trick to know...and I'm 100% positive that beer must work a lot better than water so I'll definately have to got hat route!

If you have a display area I sometimes put a dark colored cloth, black crepe paper
or roll up a piece of dark card stock and put it in the glass.

It helps, otherwise I would have to drink toooo much dark beer at the end of the day to "keep
the mugs clean!":D

[Viktor Voroncov]

Great job, Tim!

[Dee Gallo]

I love it when a plan comes together - great job, better than my first one where the mug slipped out of the clip.... I like the even-ness of the engraving, good one!

cheers, dee

[Tim Neal]

I love it when a plan comes together - great job, better than my first one where the mug slipped out of the clip.... I like the even-ness of the engraving, good one!

cheers, dee

I don't know Dee...this was the 2nd one. I ruined the first one because I didn't heed your warning in your first post and remove the outer wheels. Thanks for the compliments.

Tim

[Tim Neal]

If anyone needs a high quality beer mug, I would recommend the Anchor Hocking brand. they are thick walled, heavy, and have nice paneling around the bottom third. The nice thing is, the bottom 1/4" is perfectly round again, so the paneling does not present a problem for use with the rotary attachment. Also, I don't know about other brands, but if you remove the outer wheels on the Epilog rotary, it eliminates any interference with the handle (DAMHIK).

Thanks again for everyones help...I'm sure I'll be back again when I get to my next new thing.

Tim