Granite & Marble engraving

[Gary Hair]

I am having trouble engraving granite. I have engraved marble with fantastic results but I can’t seem to get anything even passable in granite. I tried the exact same settings I use with marble and all I get is a pretty muted engraving with almost no contrast or detail. The marble gives me a beautiful image, pretty close to a b&w photo and that’s why the granite is so frustrating. I have searched the internet and found lots of people that engrave granite and look like they are getting results that compare well to my results with marble.

I purchased “absolute black granite” from a local tile shop and I think that is what most others are using. I have tried to find a local source for “absolute black marble” but when I search for “absolute black” the only thing that comes up is granite. So, I guess my question is two parts – first, who is using granite and what results are you getting (and how), and second, where are you finding absolute black marble?

I have searched here and can’t find anything that really addresses granite – most posts about “absolute black” talk about marble.

Thanks for any help!
Gary

[Dave Jones]

This thread mentions having to reduce power on granite:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=364393

[Lee DeRaud]

I get my black granite tiles from a very obscure source: Home Depot. I've looked at some others at specialized tile stores, and can't tell the difference...except maybe price.

Granite has less "dynamic range" than marble: it's fine (great, actually) for 1-bit B&W designs and the like, much less so for detailed photos without a lot of contrast. And yes, using too much power will reduce the dynamic range even further. Coating the tile with ArmorAll before engraving (sometimes) helps.

[Bill Cunningham]

Half the battle is getting a good 2bit file from the photo to engrave..The generic granite parameter in photograv seems to work.. I pickup interesting shapes, chunks of granite from a local monument company.. I went in to ask them about random pieces, and he pointed to a pile, and said take whatever you want.. hell take it all if you want.. Glad to get rid of it..
The first pic is probably the worst type of granite to put photos on, it has 'big' quartz flakes all through it, but it does work (size is abt. 6" x 9").. The second piece is a sample of a 'line art' drawn picture, into a random chunk..(size 19.5" x 8.25" weight 9.9 lbs) I've looked at the black granite at home depot, they just started stocking it here and they call it 'absoloute black' the quartz is in tiny specks, so it may work well.. A 12 x 12: here (Ontario Canada) is $6.95 a piece.. Maybe I'll pick one up, and try it...

[Gary Hair]

Well it took a bit of experimenting and a few 12x12 tiles but I finally got it figured out. I ended up getting the best results using S=40, P=40, 300DPI. Higher resolution lost some detail and higher speed and lower power did the same. It's been an interesting day but at least I have some pretty nice results to show for it. I have a meeting tomorrow with someone very interested in the results!

thanks to everyone for your help, it got me going in the right direction.

Gary

[Gary Hair]

Here is the granite piece I was working on. I am pleased, hopefully the customer will be too.

12 by 12 granite plaque.jpg

[pat bogarin]

hi gary, try artistic-laser. i have used their black granite and im very pleased to say the least. you will be happy. mike wallace told me about them and i tried their granite. it has very tight graining and i can barely tell the difference from black marble and their black granite.
pat bogarin

[Jim Brodkorb Jr.]

Gary, I think your granite piece turned out very nice. I am fairly new to engraving. I have had the engraver for a while but just now starting to use it more. I am trying to engrave on a marble piece using photograv and can't seem to get the image to look right. I have a scanned in black and white picture. I adjusted all the settings like photograv wants (I think) and the faces have no detail. The clothing doesn't have any detail either. I have a brick wall and a tree in the background that turn out great. Any tips or ideas? Did you use photograv for your image?

Thanks for any help from the group.. this forum is great. I love to see people with a common interest helping each other out.

Jim

[Mark Plotkin]

I just boxed two marble plaques up I did for xmas. They came out great.
Here is my formula. The tiles come from Laser Bits, I know people say they are pricey, but I have had good luck with them and they have always sent out replacements when some get damaged in shipping.
I layout my artwork in corel and start with a color image. I normally powerclip into a shape so I can have an outline if needed. I resample the photo to 300dpi. Next I layout any artwork or text. When I am happy with the layout, I extact the photo, edit bitmap into photopaint and convert to 8bit grey scale, then save as a bmp photo into my engraving photo folder. Next I open photograv, open the bmp photo, use the "new" paramaters for black marble and auto process, then save the photo again to my folder, I use an eng in the name for ease of finding the right one.
Next I import the engraving photo back into corel and powerclip or place over the color image for exact placement. At this point I delete the color image or put it onto its own layer and turn off printing. I use the following settings for an epilog mini 45w. Power 40 Speed 75 dpi 300.
I looked at my log book and have done over 50 tiles this way. I find the photo at 300dpi and the lasering at 300dpi makes a big difference. I have used some other setting depending on the tiles, but this is the one I have had the best luck with. I have found when I use more power or slower speed I get banding on the pure white parts. There is a lot of trial and error that goes into marble, but as most know once you get it right the results are spectacular!

Hope this helps.

[Gary Hair]

Gary, I think your granite piece turned out very nice. I am fairly new to engraving. I have had the engraver for a while but just now starting to use it more. I am trying to engrave on a marble piece using photograv and can't seem to get the image to look right. I have a scanned in black and white picture. I adjusted all the settings like photograv wants (I think) and the faces have no detail. The clothing doesn't have any detail either. I have a brick wall and a tree in the background that turn out great. Any tips or ideas? Did you use photograv for your image?

Thanks for any help from the group.. this forum is great. I love to see people with a common interest helping each other out.

Jim

Jim,
Thanks for the compliment. Although my speed/power settings are different than his, Mark wrote great instructions on how to do marble. If you follow those directions you will have great results. If your results are not great then work with the speed/power settings. Marble can take more power and lower speed than granite. I use S30/P100 for Marble and S40/P40 for granite - on a 30W machine.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Gary

Edit: if you just can't get it to work send me the original scan, your export from PhotoGrav and your CDR file. I would be more than happy to try it on my machine.

[Mike Klafehn]

Here is an online ad I received for granite engraving via SAM's. I don't have my laser yet, so can't comment on the price. Comments...

Select Quantity, then click "Add to Cart"

Delivery: $63.64

#166627
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[Vicky Orsini]

Why can't Sam's Club stick with selling diapers by the case-load and leave us alone??

[Jim Brodkorb Jr.]

Here is a picture of the results of your help. Thanks a bunch.

I think it turned out pretty good. I'm sure with practice they will get better. Sorry about the glare from the flash.

Thanks again for the help.

[Gary Hair]

Here is a picture of the results of your help. Thanks a bunch.

I think it turned out pretty good. I'm sure with practice they will get better. Sorry about the glare from the flash.

Thanks again for the help.

Very nice Jim!

[Scott Bender]

These threads have been very helpful to me but I'm still new to laser engraving and I just can't seem to get my granite photo engravings to look as good as many I've seen others do. They always seem to come out too dark even tho they look plenty bright when I'm doing the contrast/brightness settings and I've followed the directions of the helpful youtube videos posted on here as well. Maybe my settings aren't correct. I have a 50 watt epilog mini and have tried multiple settings but the latest I've been trying is 90 spd 20 power and 100 spd 30 power for a 300 dpi image and while they don't look horrible they could definitely use some improvements. Any suggestions on a better setting for 50 watt lasers? It seems most people on here use 35watt ones.