Engraving Ceramic Mugs

[Real Mercier]

I got some ceramic mugs from a customer to engrave some names on. They look like standard mugs, black in color. I tried engraving them on the bottom of the cup as a test. I could not get through the glaze. The settings I used were 35 speed, 100 power, and 600 frequency. It lightened the glaze but did not go through. I tried again on the same spot lowering my speed to 15. You can feel the engraving but did not go thorugh. Am I doing something wrong?

I used the settings from a post by Dee Gallo. My laser is an Epilog Mini 24, 45 Watt.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Real Mercier

[Dee Gallo]

Real,

Sorry you are having trouble, but I found that there is a LOT of variation in ceramic glazes. There are some which you absolutely cannot laser through and others that go easily. For the easiest and most reliable results, you should get the mugs from JDS. I recently got a flyer from them about a new design which is rounded but flat on the sides so you don't need a rotary. It looks a lot nicer than their other flat sided version.

I've also used some of the cheaper ceramics from Dollar stores which have super thin glaze and they work too. But I have had no luck with the cheap Home Depot tiles.

Hope this helps, dee

[Mark Sipes]

I also just tried the lazerable mugs from JDS. Several colors and great result.. dishwasher and microwave save.

[Joe Hillmann]

What brand are the mugs? I have some that the only way I can mark them is with a yag.

[Chuck Stone]

how do you seal them after going through the glaze?
I assume you need to so you don't get water inside
and then get crazing later on..

[walter hofmann]

Hi dee
I use the 4x4 tiles from HD all the time I cover the laser area with white painters tape and laser thru and it gives a nice chaircoal color.
greetings
waltfl

[John Salitsky]

I was wondering how those new JDS mugs were, guess I got the same flyer, Dee.


My first thought on the customer supplied mugs is that they are not made to be marked with a laser. Now, that being said I have engraved many things with a lase that were not necessarily laser engravable but I have also run into a bunch of things I tried which did not work. Unforunately these mugs from your customer probobly are just not going to be bale to be laser engraved.

[Mike Troncalli]

Hi dee
I use the 4x4 tiles from HD all the time I cover the laser area with white painters tape and laser thru and it gives a nice chaircoal color.
greetings
waltfl

I use a color filler when engraving these tiles. I have a 40 watt and it seems to really just "rough up" the surface enough for the paint to adhere.

[John Salitsky]

Mike, that sounds similar to what happens with marble. I lasered a piece of marble once, not the stuff made for laser, and it roughed up the surface just enough to add a little color. Personally I didn't care for the way it looked but that could have had more to do with the marbling more than anything. I seem to remember thinking that with the right color marble it might look pretty cool.

[Joe Hillmann]

When I do light colored ceramic tiles with the CO2 I then rub black stamp dye into the engraving to make it visible. Once it is dry I buff it to remove the ink from the non engraved area.

[Real Mercier]

Thanks Dee and others. Unfortunately these are mugs a local shop had printed and their customer came back for some personalization. I didn't pick these. This is the first time I have been asked to do mugs. I expected there to be differences between mugs, just not that BIG a difference that some you cannot do at all. Luckily I tried to do something small on the bottom so I didn't ruin any mugs in my attempt.

Thanks everybody.

Real Mercier

[Dee Gallo]

Real, one thing you could do is use Cermark for glass and ceramics - it works quite well on any type of glaze. This would be the solution if you have to use mugs provided by a customer.

[Jim Reinhard]

I had an order for some hard coated mugs.I engraved with laser tape then sandblasted them.I then sprayed martha bake on paint with an airbrush a to seal them in.260253

[Joel Matteson]

We just finished etching a couple of the new JDS mugs that have a flat surface with rounded corners. We got the sample set. The mugs had some inconsistencies, and are far from perfect, but at the same time they were fun and easy to engrave. I made a small wood jig to hold the mug with the handle sitting horizontal. Mug was made for a friend at work for his going away.

JM

260349

[Bill Cunningham]

I had an order for some hard coated mugs.I engraved with laser tape then sandblasted them.I then sprayed martha bake on paint with an airbrush a to seal them in.260253

Hmmm don't you have a problem with spillage when you try to read them ?:D

[Dee Gallo]

Joel,

Thanks for posting that picture - the round ones I've used from JDS laser with a white line - these are lasering black? Good to have the two options.

cheers, dee

[Jim Reinhard]

Hmmm don't you have a problem with spillage when you try to read them ?:D
They are the right way up and open at the top.Odd how the picture makes them look upsidown

[Joel Matteson]

Dee,

We got the sample set which includes some that are white and some that are black. I also engrave a red one with white exposed after engraving and it came out good. Sorry, forgot to take a pic before it got sent off. One thing we noted was that they are SMALL. Advertised as an 8 oz mug. I noticed in the JDS catalogue that the round one are 11 oz so in the future I may give them a try.

[Michelle Adams]

Anyone know of a source for engraveable mugs other than JDS. Oddly enough, they won't sell to us because we are a store at an state university. They say they flat out don't sell to educational institutions. Not even credit card orders. I am stumped about why, they don't say--so I need to find someone else I can buy the mugs from. I've been searching through other suppliers pages, but the only blank mugs I find are for sublimation. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Our store does buy mugs that have sublimation printing on them, and customers have asked us to engrave on those--which we have with varied results. The white ones have been the easiest, and it basically removes the glaze, roughs up the ceramic, then we fill with black, and spray a sealer over that.

Thanks,
Michelle

[Bert Kemp]

I see some on ebay 36 mugs for I don't dare put in price or link it will get deleted or moved just go to ebay and search coffe mugs

[Jerome Stanek]

Could you set up a small business to do this sort of thing and order through it. get the students involved with the business end and teach them about running a small business

[Keith Outten]

Michelle,

Oddly enough I had the same problem you do when I worked in the sign shop at Christopher Newport University. The reason JDS won't sell to any educational institution is that they see a conflict with their engraving companies who prefer that you should purchase their services. Since the bulk of JDS's sales are to engraving companies they decided to implement this policy and not provide any services to schools, colleges or universities.

In my case we were in a major construction program that made it necessary for us to fabricate our own signs due to the shear number required for our 1.5 billion dollar construction program. I was not, at the time , engraving for the University Book Store but that didn't make any difference.

I talked to the President of JDS several years ago about this policy, he was understanding of my position but was not willing to change their rules. I contacted Johnson's Plastics and they have been my engraving products supplier ever since, they also have an excellent dye-sublimation product line. I retired from CNU almost two years ago and I still order all of the products I need for my privately owned sign shop from Johnson's Plastics as they don't discriminate against any organization public or private.

Hope this helps......

[Keith Outten]

I see some on ebay 36 mugs for I don't dare put in price or link it will get deleted or moved just go to ebay and search coffe mugs

Bert,

The reason we don't allow links to eBay is that thousands of people would register here just to get their ebay link in our forums. If that happened it would be difficult to find a thread on laser engraving here. People will use any tactic they can to sell their wares or to promote their business, a link from a very high traffic web site is particularly valuable based solely on search engine priority so this policy benefits everyone here.
.

[Jeffrey Dewing]

Hi all! I have had good luck with a paint called Rub'nBuff. A little bit goes a long way. I laser the surface and , as the name imply s, Rub'n buff over the surface. It comes in a wide assortment of colors and works well with ceramics.