Rotary Engraver for glass

[Michele Welch]

I started out sandblasting glass and when I started with my first laser I tried doing the glass on the rotary attachment and it was mixed results as you can guess. I'm wanting to continue to offer my clients the glass engraving, but am wanting to streamline it a bit and not have to create the vinyl mask and then sandblasting. Does anyone have any suggestions on a rotary engraver that will do glass? It's just one thought I had and figured I would bring it to the experts to get your suggestions. Thanks a million.

[Scott Shepherd]

Hi Michele, when you say you are creating vinyl masks for the sandblaster, are you doing that for drinking glasses as well? We sandblast glasses, but we use a photoresist. Are you using photoresist and want to get away from that?

[Michele Welch]

No, I haven't tried the photoresist and that may be the way I need to go, it's just when I've looked into the cost of everything that's needed, it seemed really expensive for something that isn't a huge part of my business. I would appreciate any help and direction you can give me in reference to doing the photo resist and what you use. Thanks a million Scott!

[Scott Shepherd]

It's cheap, actually. I think a few hundred bucks for the exposure unit and then you need the film to print the negative on and the photoresist to expose. We use Ikonics brand products here and we've been happy with the, but I know Rayzist makes great stuff too, and they carry similar products.

You can probably even find a used exposure unit for cheap if you look around. They aren't anything other than a light bulb, really. We use the one that's a cylinder, but the flatbed type.

[Michele Welch]

Wow, I had spoken with Rayzist and from what they were telling me to get a complete setup ready to go would be well over $1000 and with us being a very small business it just isn't feasible for something that isn't the main part of our company. I know there is also some film that can be used in the laser which is another option for us. I've been doing the vinyl masks for so many years and fighting with it to not blow out small areas is a nightmare sometimes.

Are your masks one time use or reusable? Most of our glasses are one off's, but sometimes I do multiples, so a reusable mask would be nice too. Thanks for the info!

[Scott Shepherd]

They are one time use masks. The photoresist isn't cheap, it's like $90 for 10 sheets of 4 mil (I don't like the 2 mil, it's too thin for me).

We print the negative on their film using an inkjet printer (you can use inkjet or laser printer), then on to the exposure unit to create the mask. Peel it, stick it on, blast it, wash it off, and you're all set. You can do very intricate detail. They even show doing photos using halftoning on their website videos. You might want to look into it. I couldn't imagine cutting masks out for glasses on the plotter. The centers of a's and p's would cause me great stress ;)

[Michele Welch]

Great stress doesn't even begin to describe the pains of weeding the vinyl off the plotter. I've had some intricate designs and they were a nightmare. I'll have to look into the the options. Thanks for the help!

[Kristian Matz]

Michele, If I remember correctly you are fairly local to me. We do a lot of sandblasting, we even import our own line of crystal and glass from Europe. You are more then welcome to come see the process and equipment. If you have any questions please let me know.

[Michele Welch]

Hi Kristian, yes I am close to you! Probably less than an hour. I'll have to set up a time to come and see your setup. How do you process your masks?

[Kristian Matz]

We do a photo resist process. I am running an order for 600 glasses this week if you want to see it.