engraving pavers

[John Minton]

Hello all

I read the past threads about engraving pavers. Mr Stokes says he does it all the time. So when the school were my wife works ask if I could do a job I of course said no problem. I stopped by Home Depot and picked up 4 Light colored clay pavers. Went home ran at 100 power 5 speed with 35 watts. It engraved great but you can not see it. The engraving is the same color as the paver. Should I have used the Dark red or does everone fill if so how or am I doing something wrong. What I was looking for was black lines on Light pavers. Thanks for the help this is a great forum


Thanks again
John

[Joe Pelonio]

As a rule of thumb I don't promise anything until I have tried it. Then I don't buy more than one or two of a new material. With white ceramic tiles, some that I have found come out with a nice dark brown, others you can go 100% power 1 speed from now until Tuesday and get no image at all. I thought it was reddish flagstone that someone did that came out with nice white copy. Unfortunately your profit may be less but you really need to buy a variety of pavers and try them until you get the results you want.

[James Stokes]

John, When I engrave pavers I do the lettering as a vector not a raster. I use full power and a speed of 2ips on a 35 watt laser. This will cause the clay to melt and turn black. The pavers allso have to be clay and not concrete.

[John Minton]

Thanks for the answers. The 4 were only 55 cents each so I am not worried about that. I played with only one and I am taking back the other 3 today and trade for the dark red. I will also check to make sure they are clay. Once again thanks you are a big help.

John

[Alan Young]

John, When I engrave pavers I do the lettering as a vector not a raster. I use full power and a speed of 2ips on a 35 watt laser. This will cause the clay to melt and turn black. The pavers allso have to be clay and not concrete.

I understand doing the letters as vector at least for the outline but what about the fill? Do you add vector lines?

Alan

[John Minton]

Hello

I found some real clay pavers. The engraving looks ok but I would like a little blacker. I am going to slow down a little more and try again. Is there anything I can put on the paver to help it be a blacker line?

Thanks
John

[James Stokes]

Sometimes I will add fills, sometimes I leave it all outlines.
If the engraving is not very black slow the speed down a little more.