Glass and a paper bag trick

[Dave Lyda]

Wanted to share a trick for smoothing the fractures and jagged feeling parts on glass after lasering. Take a piece of the dry paper bag and rub the area a few times. Smooth and nice with hardly any effort and doesn't scratch glass and you don't have to wash the glass. A fellow woodworker gave me this idea and it really works. Paper bags are different thicknesses and different textures so you might have to experiment with different bags. Hope this tip helps someone.

[Frank Corker]

I just use one of those dishwashing scouring pads, won't scratch the glass either, but it does remove the rough edges.

[Bill Cunningham]

A good stiff rub with a washcloth under cold water also does it.. It also takes the soap off the glass so ALL the foam in your glass is beer foam, and not making the booze taste funny:rolleyes: (assuming you are coating your glass with dish soap first)

[Rodne Gold]

The problem is that when you scrub the glass to remove "fracturing" , it merely reveals very inconsistent results , ie patchy areas. The idea is to avoid these "fractures" in the first place.

[Mike Null]

I agree with Rodney. I like a frosted look with no fractures. Lower the power and dpi and make more than one pass.

[Bill Cunningham]

Your always going to get some roughness on glass when done with laser.. It's the nature of the beast. If you get glass spawling off areas resulting patchy spots then your speed power is the problem. You can also find a lot of hard spots in thick glass castings (i.e. some beer mugs) that will result in patchy areas particularly if your etching over a curve close to the limits of the machine (about 60% of the diameter) But even a nice frosty look, will feel rough until it's rubbed down.. Thin text will etch well using solid black, but the bolder the letters, the grayer your text should become, varying from 90-70% gray depending on the glass clarity.. If the glass has poor clarity or visible variations in the clarity, (like most thick cheap beer mugs) it probably has hard spots developed during the cooling process.. These hard spots, if hit to hard, will spawl..

[Neal Schlee]

Lay a pc of commercial paper towel on the item to be engraved, wet with a spray bottle with water, then laser.

Neal
Lasertech Alaska

[Joseph deCroy]

I believe I heard Windex applied before lasering minimizes the fracturing.

[Bill Cunningham]

I believe I heard Windex applied before lasering minimizes the fracturing.

Ordinary dish soap.... Windex it too thin, it will run off like water.. The dish soap is thick, and holds to the area. It does not matter if it drys, (I have found no difference between dry and wet) there is something about it that seems to liquidize under the laser beam, and keeps the fracturing to a minimum..

[Charlie Bice]

I always use a wet paper towel. Makes it a bit smoother.

[Bill Cunningham]

A wet towel is ok if your doing 1 piece.. I'm usually doing multiples at the same time, or larger pieces, and the paper drys out, and get blown off the part, and up to, or out the exhaust.. If your lucky.. If your not so lucky, it get stuck where it shouldn't and catches fire..