Ok so I've got the tile engraving down no problem. Where I'm having trouble is....how do you seal the completed tile so it's not so easy to scratch the paint off? Everything I have tried bubbles the paint where it wasn't engraved. By the way great job.
Troy, that is a fantastic question. I struggled with that same issue. Usually the paint would wrinkle or bubble when I use a clear spray lacquer. Not always, but close to it. I am not sure if I let the tiles cure longer, more than 48 hours, if that would help or not. Might be worth an experiment. I have some tiles I could do that with too! To answer your question, using a water based clear coating seems to do the trick. I have used a brush on clear polyurethane as well as a clear spray water based poly. That eliminates the bubbling of the paint. A couple coats of that should do the trick for you. Let me know how that works. I will try coating some older tiles I have to see how the other clear spray coats work on a more cured paint. My guess is it will still bubble and crack. I will put that in a future video if it work.
i use polyurethane water base and brite tone if the customer is willing to pay abit more...3 good solid coats of poly and itll be fine..if you want them as coaster style id say seal it with poly and then brite tone or epoxy. never had any issues.
Hi, thanks for making such useful content. I have indulged myself in laser engraving craft in recent time and I am amazed by the result one can achieve with pre-painted tiles etching. However, one thing I couldn't help but wonder that how safe are burning spray paint can be. Apart from the VOCs there are other components in a spray paint depending on the colour. How do I know which paint is safe to burn and which can create obnoxious gases. I guess without a material expert/chemist you never know, because high temperature can stimulate many chemical reactions. I can avoid inhaling the smoke, but, If I am to make a factory (or workshop in my house) it is better to take these precautions and take care not to emit any poisonous gas to the environment. Please let me know what are your thoughts about it.
That is great! It is a fun process and you can create some really neat stuff. As for toxic fumes, I go under the assumption that they are all bad. I have a large exhaust fan that pull the smoke down through a honey comb waste board and out of the house. Depending on your setup, you might want to build a containment box around your laser where you can capture all of the fumes and vent them out.
It's do from a chemical reaction from impurities like paint didn't fully dry, or something that was on the surface a big thing is water like morning due or condensation.. so yes it will definitely happen if you didn't have the paint fully dry when doing layering.. it will even happen if the exact same can was used a 2nd time.. basically you will get a spider web like forming on the infect area.. this happens within a few minutes but will take like a 30-1 hour to fully show up... there doesn't look like there was to much interaction in it so the chemical reaction wasn't that great on it... basically you had some impunity between layers or paint wasn't fully cured
A bottle of Mountain Dew does the same thing. They are virtually invisible.. Experiment away! Tiles are cheap and spray paint isn't too bad either. Remember that if you don't make 10 mistakes a day, you aren't trying hard enough. ;-)
Maybe I missed it, but when you "clean" the tiles after burning, what are you using. I am guessing not the laquer thinner, as it will remove the colored paint left behind. Something simple like alcohol wipe? Water? Generally I have only been doing white paint and use acetone afterwards to completely remove the remaining white paint - no problem for white paint on white tile! But since you are wanting to leave the colored paint behind, anything special to clean it before putting on the clear water based poly?
Great question Paul. I do not remember if I mentioned it in this video or not. The cleaning process is water. I scrub lightly with a Scotch-Brite pad or heavily with a sponge. The Scotch-Brite can easily scratch the paint if you scrub too hard with it. It does a great job of cleaning off the tile though. I do use lacquer thinner to clean the paint off of my tiles. I find acetone too aggressive with other plastics for my use. I hope this help! :-)
Did you ever figured out why the paint was cracking? I just started with this and the same thing happened on 2 tiles and not on another tile. All same paint brand. On my tiles it was when I applied the black paint. So 1 Red with black cracked, 1 Blue with black cracked and 1 green with black did not. All same brand however the green that did not crack was that 2x paint with black Enamel while the other two colors were Red Enamel and Blue Enamel.
I never was able to track down the issue. It seemed some paint worked well and some were more problematic. It seems to be a curing time issue and each paint has a little different time for that. There must be some type of thinner in the paint that interacts with the other layers when you spray it on. It looks like what happens if you put lacquer thinner on the paint. So it is kind of a crap shoot. I prep extra tiles just in case there is an issue with a few of them.
Great questions. I have thought about this as well. To answer the question, could this be done? Yes. The next questions is, would it work well? Most likely not. There are many variables to overcome to do this. It could create some spectacular tiles if you could get everything working correctly. It would take 4 layers of paint on a white tile: RGB and black or CYM and black. Not sure which would work best. Each layer would need to be very consistent in order to control burning off the correct number of layers to show the desired color. Programming the burn could also be a trick. I like the idea and it is still in the back of my mind to give it a try sometime. Just to see what I could get working without too much effort.
That’s paint ‘crazing’ by the look of it. Top layer of paint dried faster than the bottom. I’m yet to try this painting on tiles but after a few more UA-cam videos I may give it a try.
There is something more going on as I have tried several drying times from the first to second color. I have worked with the manufacturer and followed their drying guidelines. Still ran into issues with the florescent orange. Even after letting the summer squash (yellow) dry for well over 48 hours. It is acting like there is something in the that orange paint that is breaking down the summer squash. It looks just like what I get when I put lacquer thinner onto the paint. The other colors tend not to be an issue, yellow, red, black. Even the florescent green seems to be more stable. Good luck with your experiments in using different colors. 🙂
That was one potential cause. I worked with Rust-Olium on this one. There are two options for a second coat and I have tried them both. Option 1 is to let the first coat cure to the touch and the second coat can go on within the first hour. Option 2 is to let the paint cure for 24 to 48 hours before applying a second coat. I have tried both and still ended up with the same issue. It seems that some of the colors do not play nicely with each other.
Thank you for asking Kelsi. In this video, I am using a 5.5watt blue laser. It has plenty of power to burn away the paint. I want to add air assist to my laser and keep putting it off. I think I have everything I need for that. I really should do that soon.
If I use pre coloured tiles , what happens? Firstly, when I clean with (I use acetone) will it strip the colour from a coloured tile, and secondly , will the course of the coloured tile become the bottom colour, or will the laser cut through to white still? I ask because I have a pile of bright red tiles, but I only have white paint at the moment , I havent tried layers, I've only attempted Norton method of white tile, white paint and engraving. Your videos are very interesting and really informative, thanks!
Very interesting questions. I have used a tile other than white and the process worked well. I am going to assume your colored tiles are colored from the factory. Cleaning a tile with acetone should not harm the color as it should have a glazed coating over the top which the acetone won't get through. Unless you are using a powerful laser, doing this process should not affect the base color of the tile. I think trying this method on your red tiles would be a great experiment. I would guess that it would work well. My college colors are red and black so that would make a nice gift for classmates and teachers. I have been out of school for a few decades so tracking some of them down might prove to be the difficult part. I do keep up with some friends who also attended there. Including my wife! But we did not know each other back then. Give this a try and let us know how it turns out. When next I pick up a box of white tiles, I am going to see what they have for colored tiles and play around with them. It has been on my list and your questions is bubbling that idea up to the top!
@@CNCATHome thank you AT ... If I have some mo ey spare at payday I will be buying some multi colours to give this method in this particular video a go. Am i right in assuming that unlike the norton method, this coloured method is susceptible to being scratched off? This is why i was asking about colour tiles, because if the tile can retain its colour, then i engrave, and wipe with acetone... I should theoretically have an etched tile, that cant be scratched off... so I could use the red ones with a black layer to make deadpool for example, or a yellow one to make that classic 90s smiley face, or green to make the hulk? I still watch regularly for your content, I particularly loved the set for wedding gifts you recently done (especially the dnd stuff) When you make your tiles into coasters, do you clear coat? And do you use any other adhesive for the cork backing than the tacky backing it has provided (ie goriilla glue?) I'm sorry, I have a billion questions, this is such a fascinating hobby. I have questions about ceramic, canvas or even t shirts... I have questions about laser strengths, focusing, speed and times.... questions about designing things.... all of my questions just seem to be endless though, so I'll try not to bombard you too much ha ha ha ... on that note, this message has got pretty long now. Thanks AT for your time
@@seanjohnson310 - I will try to answer your question. When painting the tiles with color paint layers, the end result is very susceptible to scratches. Once the burning process is done and the tile has been cleaned and completely dried, a good coat of clear polyurethane, water based, will help minimize the scratching. I found a water based clear poly in a spray can at my local hardware store and it seems to work ok. I have also brushed on clear poly with good results. I have not done the white paint on a colored tile yet. I did do that method on a tan/speckled tile (ua-cam.com/video/d7RhIeUp7Mg/v-deo.html) and it worked just fine. The white tile turned black and stuck to the tile just like the white tiles. I would hope this would work on a red, green, or yellow tile. When I use the Norton method on a tile (white paint that turns black and stick to the tile), I do not put any coating on the tile. I clean the un-burned paint off using lacquer thinner and make sure the tile dries well before applying the cork backing. I only use the adhesive that comes on the cork to get it to stick to the back of the tile. It seems to adhere well as long as the back of the tile is clean and DRY. I set my tiles out in the sun for several house to insure they are dry. As long as you have questions, that means you are excited about your projects. The best way I have found to answer my questions is to experiment. I come up with an idea and how I might accomplish it. Then I start to experiment. That is half the fun right there; figuring out how to get something to work.
I don't see why it would not work. If you seal the wood so the paint layers do not soak into the wood, you could then burn off one or two layers to reveal the desired color you had applied to the wood.
Ok so I've got the tile engraving down no problem. Where I'm having trouble is....how do you seal the completed tile so it's not so easy to scratch the paint off? Everything I have tried bubbles the paint where it wasn't engraved. By the way great job.
Troy, that is a fantastic question. I struggled with that same issue. Usually the paint would wrinkle or bubble when I use a clear spray lacquer. Not always, but close to it. I am not sure if I let the tiles cure longer, more than 48 hours, if that would help or not. Might be worth an experiment. I have some tiles I could do that with too!
To answer your question, using a water based clear coating seems to do the trick. I have used a brush on clear polyurethane as well as a clear spray water based poly. That eliminates the bubbling of the paint. A couple coats of that should do the trick for you. Let me know how that works.
I will try coating some older tiles I have to see how the other clear spray coats work on a more cured paint. My guess is it will still bubble and crack. I will put that in a future video if it work.
i use polyurethane water base and brite tone if the customer is willing to pay abit more...3 good solid coats of poly and itll be fine..if you want them as coaster style id say seal it with poly and then brite tone or epoxy. never had any issues.
@@thatonegamer2709 thank you I will give it a try.
floorwax dude revive it i believe.used to be called future
@@CNCATHome
Hi, thanks for making such useful content. I have indulged myself in laser engraving craft in recent time and I am amazed by the result one can achieve with pre-painted tiles etching. However, one thing I couldn't help but wonder that how safe are burning spray paint can be. Apart from the VOCs there are other components in a spray paint depending on the colour. How do I know which paint is safe to burn and which can create obnoxious gases. I guess without a material expert/chemist you never know, because high temperature can stimulate many chemical reactions. I can avoid inhaling the smoke, but, If I am to make a factory (or workshop in my house) it is better to take these precautions and take care not to emit any poisonous gas to the environment.
Please let me know what are your thoughts about it.
That is great! It is a fun process and you can create some really neat stuff. As for toxic fumes, I go under the assumption that they are all bad. I have a large exhaust fan that pull the smoke down through a honey comb waste board and out of the house. Depending on your setup, you might want to build a containment box around your laser where you can capture all of the fumes and vent them out.
It's do from a chemical reaction from impurities like paint didn't fully dry, or something that was on the surface a big thing is water like morning due or condensation.. so yes it will definitely happen if you didn't have the paint fully dry when doing layering.. it will even happen if the exact same can was used a 2nd time.. basically you will get a spider web like forming on the infect area.. this happens within a few minutes but will take like a 30-1 hour to fully show up... there doesn't look like there was to much interaction in it so the chemical reaction wasn't that great on it... basically you had some impunity between layers or paint wasn't fully cured
The green screen on the paint cans is great lol. Thank you for the confidence in moving forward.
A bottle of Mountain Dew does the same thing. They are virtually invisible.. Experiment away! Tiles are cheap and spray paint isn't too bad either. Remember that if you don't make 10 mistakes a day, you aren't trying hard enough. ;-)
3000/65/?? Number of passes?
Good questions! Just one. I did pull up the project to verify what I had done and it was just one pass.
Maybe I missed it, but when you "clean" the tiles after burning, what are you using. I am guessing not the laquer thinner, as it will remove the colored paint left behind. Something simple like alcohol wipe? Water? Generally I have only been doing white paint and use acetone afterwards to completely remove the remaining white paint - no problem for white paint on white tile! But since you are wanting to leave the colored paint behind, anything special to clean it before putting on the clear water based poly?
Great question Paul. I do not remember if I mentioned it in this video or not. The cleaning process is water. I scrub lightly with a Scotch-Brite pad or heavily with a sponge. The Scotch-Brite can easily scratch the paint if you scrub too hard with it. It does a great job of cleaning off the tile though. I do use lacquer thinner to clean the paint off of my tiles. I find acetone too aggressive with other plastics for my use. I hope this help! :-)
Did you ever figured out why the paint was cracking? I just started with this and the same thing happened on 2 tiles and not on another tile. All same paint brand. On my tiles it was when I applied the black paint. So 1 Red with black cracked, 1 Blue with black cracked and 1 green with black did not. All same brand however the green that did not crack was that 2x paint with black Enamel while the other two colors were Red Enamel and Blue Enamel.
I never was able to track down the issue. It seemed some paint worked well and some were more problematic. It seems to be a curing time issue and each paint has a little different time for that. There must be some type of thinner in the paint that interacts with the other layers when you spray it on. It looks like what happens if you put lacquer thinner on the paint. So it is kind of a crap shoot. I prep extra tiles just in case there is an issue with a few of them.
If you had a layer each for red yellow blue, do you think you could do dot art (diffusion?) and get full color artwork??
Great questions. I have thought about this as well. To answer the question, could this be done? Yes. The next questions is, would it work well? Most likely not. There are many variables to overcome to do this. It could create some spectacular tiles if you could get everything working correctly. It would take 4 layers of paint on a white tile: RGB and black or CYM and black. Not sure which would work best. Each layer would need to be very consistent in order to control burning off the correct number of layers to show the desired color. Programming the burn could also be a trick. I like the idea and it is still in the back of my mind to give it a try sometime. Just to see what I could get working without too much effort.
the next problem would be the color blue... In my experience blue does not go well with a blue diode laser.
@@RobinGerritsen1995 CMYK in reverse, or bottom layer. My colour list wasn't entirely accidental
@@generrosity have you tried it by any chance?
That’s paint ‘crazing’ by the look of it. Top layer of paint dried faster than the bottom.
I’m yet to try this painting on tiles but after a few more UA-cam videos I may give it a try.
There is something more going on as I have tried several drying times from the first to second color. I have worked with the manufacturer and followed their drying guidelines. Still ran into issues with the florescent orange. Even after letting the summer squash (yellow) dry for well over 48 hours. It is acting like there is something in the that orange paint that is breaking down the summer squash. It looks just like what I get when I put lacquer thinner onto the paint. The other colors tend not to be an issue, yellow, red, black. Even the florescent green seems to be more stable.
Good luck with your experiments in using different colors. 🙂
It cracked because you didn’t let the first layer dry completely
That was one potential cause. I worked with Rust-Olium on this one. There are two options for a second coat and I have tried them both. Option 1 is to let the first coat cure to the touch and the second coat can go on within the first hour. Option 2 is to let the paint cure for 24 to 48 hours before applying a second coat. I have tried both and still ended up with the same issue. It seems that some of the colors do not play nicely with each other.
what watt is your engraver? i have a 5w and waiting on the airassist
Thank you for asking Kelsi. In this video, I am using a 5.5watt blue laser. It has plenty of power to burn away the paint. I want to add air assist to my laser and keep putting it off. I think I have everything I need for that. I really should do that soon.
My OCD is in the red. You can't do just 9, can you.
Sorry about that! I see it as a nice 3 X 3 grid. I hope that helps. ;-)
@@CNCATHome NP 😁
If I use pre coloured tiles , what happens? Firstly, when I clean with (I use acetone) will it strip the colour from a coloured tile, and secondly , will the course of the coloured tile become the bottom colour, or will the laser cut through to white still? I ask because I have a pile of bright red tiles, but I only have white paint at the moment , I havent tried layers, I've only attempted Norton method of white tile, white paint and engraving. Your videos are very interesting and really informative, thanks!
Very interesting questions. I have used a tile other than white and the process worked well. I am going to assume your colored tiles are colored from the factory. Cleaning a tile with acetone should not harm the color as it should have a glazed coating over the top which the acetone won't get through. Unless you are using a powerful laser, doing this process should not affect the base color of the tile. I think trying this method on your red tiles would be a great experiment. I would guess that it would work well.
My college colors are red and black so that would make a nice gift for classmates and teachers. I have been out of school for a few decades so tracking some of them down might prove to be the difficult part. I do keep up with some friends who also attended there. Including my wife! But we did not know each other back then.
Give this a try and let us know how it turns out. When next I pick up a box of white tiles, I am going to see what they have for colored tiles and play around with them. It has been on my list and your questions is bubbling that idea up to the top!
@@CNCATHome thank you AT ...
If I have some mo ey spare at payday I will be buying some multi colours to give this method in this particular video a go. Am i right in assuming that unlike the norton method, this coloured method is susceptible to being scratched off?
This is why i was asking about colour tiles, because if the tile can retain its colour, then i engrave, and wipe with acetone... I should theoretically have an etched tile, that cant be scratched off... so I could use the red ones with a black layer to make deadpool for example, or a yellow one to make that classic 90s smiley face, or green to make the hulk?
I still watch regularly for your content, I particularly loved the set for wedding gifts you recently done (especially the dnd stuff)
When you make your tiles into coasters, do you clear coat? And do you use any other adhesive for the cork backing than the tacky backing it has provided (ie goriilla glue?)
I'm sorry, I have a billion questions, this is such a fascinating hobby. I have questions about ceramic, canvas or even t shirts... I have questions about laser strengths, focusing, speed and times.... questions about designing things.... all of my questions just seem to be endless though, so I'll try not to bombard you too much ha ha ha ... on that note, this message has got pretty long now.
Thanks AT for your time
@@seanjohnson310 - I will try to answer your question.
When painting the tiles with color paint layers, the end result is very susceptible to scratches. Once the burning process is done and the tile has been cleaned and completely dried, a good coat of clear polyurethane, water based, will help minimize the scratching. I found a water based clear poly in a spray can at my local hardware store and it seems to work ok. I have also brushed on clear poly with good results.
I have not done the white paint on a colored tile yet. I did do that method on a tan/speckled tile (ua-cam.com/video/d7RhIeUp7Mg/v-deo.html) and it worked just fine. The white tile turned black and stuck to the tile just like the white tiles. I would hope this would work on a red, green, or yellow tile.
When I use the Norton method on a tile (white paint that turns black and stick to the tile), I do not put any coating on the tile. I clean the un-burned paint off using lacquer thinner and make sure the tile dries well before applying the cork backing. I only use the adhesive that comes on the cork to get it to stick to the back of the tile. It seems to adhere well as long as the back of the tile is clean and DRY. I set my tiles out in the sun for several house to insure they are dry.
As long as you have questions, that means you are excited about your projects. The best way I have found to answer my questions is to experiment. I come up with an idea and how I might accomplish it. Then I start to experiment. That is half the fun right there; figuring out how to get something to work.
Can it works in wood?
I don't see why it would not work. If you seal the wood so the paint layers do not soak into the wood, you could then burn off one or two layers to reveal the desired color you had applied to the wood.