Large Number of Wine Glasses

[Tim Bateson]

I have a community service organization needing nearly 300 wine glasses with detailed logos on each for a Christmas party.

The time & labor to do 300 wine glasses is nearly a week for me (working 4-6 hour days). Placing a glass in the rotor, engraving detailed logo, cleanup & pack is 5+ minutes per glass or 25-30 hours of engraving & labor. Now, this is a low end (pay wise) job, any suggestions for speeding it up or simplifying it?

[Anthony Scira]

Good for you for landing that job. I could never compete with the silk screen glasses when they are looking at that quantity.

The most I do are custom ones for bridal parties. So 10 at a time.

[paul jeran]

Instead of engraving on the bowl of the glass, try engraving on the base from the back. I have done cases of glasses for a winery this way and they really like them. I have placed 4 wine logos on the N-S-E-W parts of the base with quick engrave time. I also made a fixture to load 6 glasses at a time so I was cleaning/boxing the last 6 while 6 others were being engraved.

298046298047

[Jess Phiz]

We do mainly glassware, we just outline trace everything on Coral Draw before using the image on the glass (with our laser software (Thunderlaser v4.47) if there is a picture it takes longer then a shape/text)
We also found that using a Product called 'Rub n Buff' in the glasses gives an awesome finish, so good that when any liquid is put in the glasses you can see the writing still. The only two that work with any joy are the silver or white (we mainly use silver). It takes a little bit more work to do but has an awesome finish and as far as I'm aware we're the only one in the country using it for that on big scale.
Our average etch time per glass is 2 mins, even for detailed logos.


I have a community service organization needing nearly 300 wine glasses with detailed logos on each for a Christmas party.

The time & labor to do 300 wine glasses is nearly a week for me (working 4-6 hour days). Placing a glass in the rotor, engraving detailed logo, cleanup & pack is 5+ minutes per glass or 25-30 hours of engraving & labor. Now, this is a low end (pay wise) job, any suggestions for speeding it up or simplifying it?

[Kev Williams]

Good luck. I have a local wine bar just itching to have me do 100's of wine glasses with their logo. The problem? They have a sample that was acid etched. Badly acid etched, there's gobs of acid burns all over the place, but the acid etching shows up WAY better than my LS900's etching, so they're wondering if there's a way to make mine show up better...

One way is my trusty Chinese Triumph. It will literally melt the glass behind itself. REALLY shows up nicely! ---right up to the point the glass breaks. Can't take that much heat. Less heat ends up looking exactly like the LS900's work. I'm thinking of filling a glass with water if I can figure out a good cork to keep the water in. And a good place for the water to go if it doesn't work!

That all said, to speed things up you might try ridiculously low res on the Y axis, like 200 lines per inch, glass is pretty forgiving. You can run the X axis at whatever res you want since it has no effect on engraving speed, keeping it fairly high res should keep the edges smooth.

[Kevin Gregerson]

With 35 watts yer kind of sol. If you had 50+ watts you could get away with a longer focus lens and just etch a whole table of glasses at a time on one side. I agree with the etch the base as it will give you the ability to do multiples at once. Simply just convert the text to curves in Coreldraw and drag the image across itself for a reverse. Tell them you'll give them a 25 percent discount if they let you do it this way because you just don't have enough time to do that many glasses individually. Show them a sample and I'm sure they'll say yes.



Good luck. I have a local wine bar just itching to have me do 100's of wine glasses with their logo. The problem? They have a sample that was acid etched. Badly acid etched, there's gobs of acid burns all over the place, but the acid etching shows up WAY better than my LS900's etching, so they're wondering if there's a way to make mine show up better...

One way is my trusty Chinese Triumph. It will literally melt the glass behind itself. REALLY shows up nicely! ---right up to the point the glass breaks. Can't take that much heat. Less heat ends up looking exactly like the LS900's work. I'm thinking of filling a glass with water if I can figure out a good cork to keep the water in. And a good place for the water to go if it doesn't work!

That all said, to speed things up you might try ridiculously low res on the Y axis, like 200 lines per inch, glass is pretty forgiving. You can run the X axis at whatever res you want since it has no effect on engraving speed, keeping it fairly high res should keep the edges smooth.

I don't know if the ls900 offers this option but can you play with the density settings a bit, if so you'll find that you can do quite a bit here.

[Bernie Fraser]

Paul , What a great idea , thanks for posting that .

[Keith Colson]

If you laser cut a fixture that could clip two or three glasses together and your rotary engraver is long enough you could turn two or three at a time. I should look at this myself as this would be handy..

I just did my first set of glasses a few days ago and quickly realised that the margin can easily be small. Who wants to pay more that 30 to 40 bucks for a set of six? My glasses cost $15 for 6 and I did 40mins on the laser and about 60mins on the artwork. That's $100 labour right there.

If you wanted to be really efficient for huge volume you could have an automated loader. It would be totally cool but justifying the development would take some real desire. For now I will charge $60 a set and lose most customers (I guess).

Cheers
Keith

[Bill George]

I would use your laser to make sandblasting masks, and purchase a inexpensive or have someone else do the blasting for you. You can purchase enclosed sandblasting cabinets, but do you have enough air compressor to handle the job?

[Tim Bateson]

...We do mainly glassware, we just outline trace everything on Coral Draw before using the image on the glass (with our laser software (Thunderlaser v4.47) if there is a picture it takes longer then a shape/text)...

...Simply just convert the text to curves in Coreldraw and drag the image across itself for a reverse...
I'll have to examine/test this process.


...try engraving on the base from the back...
Great Idea


I would use your laser to make sandblasting masks...
We've considered this, but with the time to laser that many masks, applying masks, blasting, and cleanup, wouldn't the time & cost be higher?

[Bill George]

When I was doing metal work with my CNC plasma I had masking material on a roll. I used a vinyl knife attachment for the machine head to cut out the masks.

I think you could cut a whole array of masks at one time with your Laser and then hire some low cost help to apply the masks and sandblast. Even thou the blasting could be done in a cabinet, you still would need eye protection, good ventilation and a breathing mask just to make sure. Not sure IF you could re-use the cut out sandblasting mask but I suspect not. Others on here are much more knowledgeable than I am.

[Kevin Gregerson]

I'll have to examine/test this process.


Great Idea


We've considered this, but with the time to laser that many masks, applying masks, blasting, and cleanup, wouldn't the time & cost be higher?

If you do a sheet of them and make sure the cut mark for each mask is the same height from the text so you can simply just apply it to the lip and go. This lets you do it in larger sets.

[Martin Boekers]

Check out a company like this...

http://www.thetipsygrape.com/Bulk-Classic-Goblets-Prodview.html


It would be hard to do it yourself with this pricing...

[Bill Stearns]

TIM -
I get glassware engraving orders, from time to time, in the range of 300 or so pieces. A while back, I discovered this simple, but efficient universal glassware holder on-line. Was $29.95 plus S&H = $40.63. It has worked well for me - 'though I still do the glasses one-by-one; projects seem to go quick enough. Matronics-Corporation.com - Salkum, WA. (You should find the item on their site under "links" > "glass etching > "round glass". May be of interest 'n help to you - maybe, not? As for packing? - find some school kid who'd like to earn 'few bucks. (don't seem to be able to a attach photo of the item; but I'll try. Good luck!

Bill

[Kev Williams]

I've yet to find the customer that would accept the base being etched rather than the body. The wine glasses my potential customer has, the logo that goes on the glass, plus a small added hash mark, are positioned exactly to determine a 2 ounce or 5 ounce pour... And the glass mfr's logo is already etched on the bases.

--sandblasting-- Someone on the board here has a video of the process of sandblasting some mugs. The problem as I saw it, was, while the mugs were getting done fairly quickly, it took 2 guys to do it. Me, I don't have a 2nd guy. (I do, but he's always busy earning money engraving something else). And anyway, seems the profit after paying the second guy to double the output would be much less than one guy doing them half as fast.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Outsource the work to someone who does silk screened glassware. Shipping is about $1.25 per glass (rough number). Typical glass is about $3.00 to silkscreen. That's $4.25 each. These are retail numbers.

Assuming you can buy the glass for $1 each that means you're looking at $3.25 profit each or about $35-40/hr. If you outsource the work, you obviously make less money but you make a hell of a lot more per hour. Outsourcing work is vastly underrated on here.

As for sandblasting, you'd need to invest about $1000-1500 to get started. Cheap cabinet, pot, medium, peddle, ect is about $500. Compressor is about $400 (decent size). Printer is about $300. Lightbox is between $100-300. Also it takes time to apply the masks consistently. Blasting 300 identical glasses is going to take less time than lasering 300 but it's also more labor intensive.

[Gary Hair]

--sandblasting-- Someone on the board here has a video of the process of sandblasting some mugs. The problem as I saw it, was, while the mugs were getting done fairly quickly, it took 2 guys to do it. Me, I don't have a 2nd guy. (I do, but he's always busy earning money engraving something else). And anyway, seems the profit after paying the second guy to double the output would be much less than one guy doing them half as fast.

I'm a one-man shop and have sandblasted everything from shot glasses to multi-ton boulders - never has it required more than me to do the job, not sure why a coffee mug would take 2 people... If I had 300 glasses to do I would use photo resist and sandblast them. Ikonics will make the resist for you, all you have to do is blast them. The cost estimate in another post is a bit high in my opinion, especially for glassess. You can buy a cabinet at Harbor Freight for $200, a pressure pot for less than $60, 50lbs of 120 grit AO for about $150, compressor for $300-$500, dust collector and connections ~ $200, and you are up and running. That may seem like a lot for a few glasses, but for 300 of them (should be about $8.00 each), that gives you a nice profit margin that will pay for the equipment. Best of all, you have engraved glass the way it SHOULD be engraved - with sand! Once you use sand you'll never go back to lasering glass.

[Tim Bateson]

The sandblasting does intrigue me. I used one of those fancy sand blasting machines up at the Indy NBM show & was very impressive. I just don't do enough glass to make it worth that large investment. The Harbor Freight cabinets however may be worth it for this job. I know those cabinets need to be sealed prior to use, and even then will likely produce some dust. So it seems it would need to be done outside or in the garage?
Outsourcing is not out of the picture either.

[Bill George]

The sandblasting does intrigue me. I used one of those fancy sand blasting machines up at the Indy NBM show & was very impressive. I just don't do enough glass to make it worth that large investment. The Harbor Freight cabinets however may be worth it for this job. I know those cabinets need to be sealed prior to use, and even then will likely produce some dust. So it seems it would need to be done outside or in the garage?
Outsourcing is not out of the picture either.
Harbor Freight has them for a bit over $200. You can download the owners manual and take a look but it seems like everything you need except the sand and the compressor is included. I had one of those HF pressured pots and for a lot of big stuff you can do outside it worked great. But the cabinet seems to come with all you need. I did blast some glass and its not rocket science, just aim and pull the trigger. The tricky part is getting all the wine glasses the same texture and depth.

I would just hook up a large shop vac (or cheap blower) to the cabinet with those good paper pleated "forever" filters and dump the vac exhaust outside in case anything gets by the filters. Wearing a good mask would also be a needed safety item.

I would build a wood separator tray(s) and load glasses in the spaces and the side up you want blasted and that way they are not rattling around inside the cabinet. You just handle the trays.
http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-capacity-floor-blast-cabinet-68893.html

[Gary Hair]

The sandblasting does intrigue me. I used one of those fancy sand blasting machines up at the Indy NBM show & was very impressive. I just don't do enough glass to make it worth that large investment. The Harbor Freight cabinets however may be worth it for this job. I know those cabinets need to be sealed prior to use, and even then will likely produce some dust. So it seems it would need to be done outside or in the garage?
Outsourcing is not out of the picture either.

Tim,
The HF cabinets will leak a bit but it's really not necessary to seal them up, especially if you use a dust collector - the negative pressure inside the cabinet will keep the dust inside - right up to the point where you open it up and remove whatever you just blasted... Outside would be best, but for glass you can do it inside if you are careful to blow the dust from around the door and off of the parts before you open it up. For $209.00, the sale price right now, you can't go wrong! If you download their "perpetual" 20% off coupon then it will be $167.20.

[Gary Hair]

Harbor Freight has them for a bit over $200. On sale for $209 - 20% gets it to $167.20

You can download the owners manual and take a look but it seems like everything you need except the sand and the compressor is included.
What comes with it will not work for anything besides blasting rust off car parts. You need a pressure pot for two reasons - 1 - control and 2 - less air consumption

The tricky part is getting all the wine glasses the same texture and depth.
That's were the pressure pot is needed. I can dial down the pressure to 15-20 psi with 120 grit AO and get virtually perfect results, glass after glass.


I would just hook up a large shop vac
First, there isn't enough airflow from a shop vac to work properly, second, you'll destroy the shop vac in pretty short order. any filter you use will get clogged and render the shop vac useless.


I would build a wood separator tray(s) and load glasses in the spaces and the side up you want blasted and that way they are not rattling around inside the cabinet. You just handle the trays.
From my experience the trays would just get in the way. I actually feed the glasses in through the glove hole about 8-10 at a time. That works well for two reasons - I can stack them off to the side of the cabinet and not worry about accidentally blasting them and it also helps to keep the media inside the cabinet since I rarely open the door.

[Tim Bateson]

A few questions:
1. I have a Craftsman 26Gal Compressor - Will that do & if so, do I still need the pressure pot?
2. The inside of these are pretty hard, do you lay rubber mats inside to keep glass from breaking?
3. What type of nozzle/equipment would I need if the equipment with it isn't suitable?

[Bill George]

You won't be able to sandblast non- stop but you do a glass, stop pick up another and so on. Wait for the compressor to get caught up. The gun is a syphon feed from the sand pile at the bottom. The pot Gary talks about is a pressurized container with a air pressure feed at the top and the air also feeds the gun. The pot has more reliable feeding, but you could try the gun that comes with the cabinet. The cabinet is set up to use a shop vac for a dust collector .

I used the HF pot and I think it was a 40 lb model could be wrong. Worked really well. It would be nice just to use the pot and do them all outside, if you don't mind buying a lot of sand.

The "pot" http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-pressurized-abrasive-blaster-68992-8608.html

I think it uses more air and the hood that comes with it sucks, of course if your using the cabinet it makes no difference.

[Mike Null]

You can't use sand. The best media is silicon carbide of 150 to 180 grit. Aluminum oxide works too but creates too much static electricity. Both are re-usable but silicon carbide will last almost indefinitely.

[Gary Hair]

A few questions:
1. I have a Craftsman 26Gal Compressor - Will that do & if so, do I still need the pressure pot?
2. The inside of these are pretty hard, do you lay rubber mats inside to keep glass from breaking?
3. What type of nozzle/equipment would I need if the equipment with it isn't suitable?

That compressor will work ok for glass but that's about it. As already said, blast a glass then wait a bit then blast some more. Using a pressure pot will allow you to dial down the pressure so low that you may not have to wait much, if at all. I have a piece of cardboard on the left half of the cabinet to stack the glasses on. You have to be a bit careful to not knock anything over, but it's really not that difficult.
The nozzle and hose I use was based on something I found the on CuttingEdgeSandCarving forum - it's no longer running though, the forum that is... It's nothing more than polyethylene tubing and a couple of connectors along with a carbide nozzle. The tubing isn't anything special as I only run a max of 40 psi and the media I use isn't really coarse enough to do much damage to the tubing. The nozzle is fairly expensive, but with 120 grit at 20-40 psi, it will last several lifetimes... I can't find the exact one I bought but this one is pretty darn close: http://sandblastingabrasives.com/super-titan-tungsten-carbide-etching-inserts-mt-series-795.html

Found my nozzle: http://www.glass-etching-supplies.com/type-2-small-carbide-nozzle.html

If you want to call me and discuss, pm me and I'll reply with my phone number.

[Gary Hair]

The pot Gary talks about is a pressurized container with a air pressure feed at the top and the air also feeds the gun.

The pot has more reliable feeding, but you could try the gun that comes with the cabinet.
Don't bother with the siphon feed, it won't work for this application. It takes too much air, is not adjustable and would be like using a firehose to wash the dog...

The cabinet is set up to use a shop vac for a dust collector .
The connector may fit a shop vac but that is definitely not suitable - a dust collector with an adapter is really what you need.

I used the HF pot and I think it was a 40 lb model could be wrong.
I use the 20lb for glasses, it's a bit easier to adjust to the lower pressure and you don't need a 40lb pot with 120 grit media.

if you don't mind buying a lot of sand.
Please, Please, Please, don't use sand! Aluminum Oxide (AO) or silicon carbide (SC) are the only types of media you should use for glass. I use Green Diamond for rocks and such, but never sand! Do a google search on silicosis before you use sand and I'm hoping you'll change your mind. You may have been using "sand" generically like "kleenex", but sand is not to be used unless you have a way to 100% contain it as well as positive pressure breathing masks.



I think it uses more air and the hood that comes with it sucks, of course if your using the cabinet it makes no difference.
It actually uses less air, maybe 80% less, than the siphon system that comes with the cabinet. The hood does suck and provides almost no protection for your lungs, it probably costs them about $0.50 so they throw it in so it looks like you are getting a "complete" sandblasting setup... you get what you pay for sometimes.

[Gary Hair]

You can't use sand.
!!!!!

The best media is silicon carbide of 150 to 180 grit.
I use 120 but that's because of the explanation below.

Aluminum oxide works too but creates too much static electricity.
You won't fall asleep using it! If I'm in a situation where I can't reclaim and reuse the media then I'll use AO because it's quite a bit less expensive than SC and they both start out with about the same cutting power. If I'm blasting softer rock then I'll use Green Diamond, even less expensive. Locally, SC is about $2-$3 per lb, AO is $1-$2 per lb and Green Diamond is $11 per 100lbs.

Both are re-usable but silicon carbide will last almost indefinitely.
AO and SC both have very sharp cutting edges in the bag. When used the AO ends up with rounded corners/edges and gets dull pretty fast and you end up with dust that doesn't do much. SC breaks into smaller versions of what you started with and you end up with a finer grit but still every bit as sharp. The general consensus on the sandcarving forum was to buy slightly coarser SC because you'll end up with finer grit as you use it. If you start with fine grit then you end up with (sharp) powder pretty quickly. Same thing with nozzles - buy one a size smaller than you really need and it will eventually wear to your desired size. It will be usable from the beginning and will stay usable longer than if you bought a larger size and wore it out a bit. Not quite as important with low pressure and fine grit for glasses, but still a consideration. Plus, you need less air to run it and you get more control/finer detail.

[Jim Reinhard]

I blast a lot of wine glasses and beer mugs.HF pot and Hf cabinet The best investment I made was a PAB blaster gun and the adapter that goes on the hf pot.Works great. I bought a few 180 grit 50lb bags of aluminum oxide form florida silica sand company and just keep re using it ,Dont remember how ,but I put a sink drain pipe on the bottom with a gate valve.I open it up into a bucket with a screen to filter it .Although some day I would love to upgrade to a ryzist blast cabinet with dust collector I would probably still use the PAB gun.

[Mike Null]

+1 on the PAB gun. I sold mine but it was a dandy tool. (not doing sand carving any longer)

[Keith Winter]

GREAT idea Paul! Those look sharp! :)

Instead of engraving on the bowl of the glass, try engraving on the base from the back. I have done cases of glasses for a winery this way and they really like them. I have placed 4 wine logos on the N-S-E-W parts of the base with quick engrave time. I also made a fixture to load 6 glasses at a time so I was cleaning/boxing the last 6 while 6 others were being engraved.

298046298047

[Keith Winter]

Tim you didn't say, but I'm going to assume you're making less than $15 a glass here, probably less than $10. In these low margin situations, a repeatable process is always key.

We do hundreds of glasses a week. The key here again is a repeatable process and making the process as simple as possible to eliminate mistakes. Did I mention we ruin a dozen or so glasses a week also? :) Plan on about 1% damage if you do it yourself or 3%-4% damage if you're having others do the work.

You really have two options with this type of quantity
a) Get a sandblasting setup. As others have pointed out this is where sandblasting shines, highly repeatable jobs. This is how the big boys that put out 1000s of the same glass do it if that tells you anything. What you need is cheap labor to apply the masks and then you need to teach someone how to etch it and clean it. Take yourself out of the equation.

b) Setup a repeatable fool proof process for your laser and then have someone else run it. Setting up the job and working out the process is always the hard work. Once you've got that set you make a document with all the steps and teach your assistant to do what you just did.

You main purpose on these large jobs is it instruct and teach your assistant, and have them do the work. I know what you're thinking, they won't do it right or they will make some mistakes. That's ok as long as you Quality control as the job is going on. Your time is more valuable than the $10/hr college kid (btw most college kids would jump at $10/hr to play with a laser or sandblaster). That way you can focus on getting more jobs and tasks that make your business more money than the $3 or $4 you are making on each engraved glass.



I have a community service organization needing nearly 300 wine glasses with detailed logos on each for a Christmas party.

The time & labor to do 300 wine glasses is nearly a week for me (working 4-6 hour days). Placing a glass in the rotor, engraving detailed logo, cleanup & pack is 5+ minutes per glass or 25-30 hours of engraving & labor. Now, this is a low end (pay wise) job, any suggestions for speeding it up or simplifying it?

[Kev Williams]

Just to get back to actually lasering the things-- In messing with my would-be job I kinda sorta stumbled across the sweet spot for my LS900, I'm actually amazed at how well this is working now--

Some pics--

This was my first try with the Triumph. I did it flat, using the 100mm lens. The glass was sideways, top to the left, so engraving started at the right side of the logo. Around halfway thru the glass popped. When I stopped and restarted, the engraving 'pattern' changed. It popped a second time soon after...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/wine1.JPG



Turned it and tried with lower power. Pretty weird results, got some nice mottling, combined with a few 'record grooves'. Not very consistent, or conducive to selling laser etching. The glass moved towards the end of this test, that's why the "high" left side...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/wine2.JPG



This is the acid etched sample glass I was provided. They like that it's consistent and easy to see, but there are small blotches here and there from acid splash (although the visible splash marks are my doing)

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/wine3.JPG



So I decided to experiment some more on the busted glass, tried some new settings, and was very surprised and pleased at what I got! I did a single bottle, and it came out extremely consistent, with no shiny 'pop' marks from over-fractured glass. So I found a blank space and did the whole logo, and happily I got the same results...

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/wine4.JPG



And a side by side shot of acid etched and my version-- Personally, I think the acid etching looks dirty.

http://www.engraver1.com/erase2/wine5.JPG



I don't have the glass the LS900 did originally, but it didn't look a whole lot different than what the Triumph did. This is better than any glass etching I've ever done-- so now I have more experimenting to do! :)

BTW, engrave time was just under 2:30...

[Ross Moshinsky]

Kev,

Try the following. 25W power, 500 mm/sec. 600dpi. Full black. Take a piece of soaking wet newspaper and apply it. No exhaust. No air assist.

[Tim Bateson]

Just to bring this full circle. They found someone local to engrave the logos onto the wine glasses for about $0.75 each. That's only $225 for a 10 - 16 hour job... I can't & won't compete with that.

Depending on quality, I think I may outsource all of my work to that guy? :p

[Scott Shepherd]

Just to bring this full circle. They found someone local to engrave the logos onto the wine glasses for about $0.75 each. That's only $225 for a 10 - 16 hour job... I can't & won't compete with that.

Depending on quality, I think I may outsource all of my work to that guy? :p

WOW. You can't buy the mask material for .75 cents.

I quoted 50,000 pieces a while back. I was buying the masks made in bulk for .65 cents. Quoted $1.00 each total. That was going to make $45 per hour, so I would have someone doing nothing but blasting all day, every day for a period of time.

Went to the customer's place to drop something off, they had the pieces there, assembling the final pieces. He said "we had them done for .07 cents each in China". Someone made 50,000 masks, applied them to a piece of glass, blasted them, removed the mask, cleaned them, and shipped them for .07 cents each, or $3,500 total, where we were at $50,000.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Remember, engrave doesn't always mean engrave. It's one of the biggest issues when it comes to quoting jobs out. Are you quoting the same thing as your competitor?

For $.75 each, it's probably a printed process. That's a much lower cost process and much faster as well. It's the main reason I don't even consider lasering large quantities of glasses.

[Scott Shepherd]

Remember, engrave doesn't always mean engrave. It's one of the biggest issues when it comes to quoting jobs out. Are you quoting the same thing as your competitor?

For $.75 each, it's probably a printed process. That's a much lower cost process and much faster as well. It's the main reason I don't even consider lasering large quantities of glasses.

Good point. I think there is a huge place in Ohio that bakes on decals that looks exactly like sandblasting. One of my customers works with them. It's very cheap and very durable.

[Keith Winter]

Agreed that's super cheap, they must be doing screen printing or decals. NOT the same quality as an engraved glass but some companies might not care. I have a glass in my dishwasher I've run about 80 cycles engraved, that I normally tell clients about when selling our services over the cheaper printing techniques. Looks exactly the same as the day I engraved it. Try that with some decal or printed glass!