The expansion causes a crack in the glass making it appear as if the laser engraved the glass.ĭustan also dabbled with cutting with his blackTooth laser system. CO2 lasers heat the air trapped within the glass and when air is heated, it expands. The laser is not actually engraving the glass, the laser is marking the glass by putting little cracks in the glass. If you are marking glass, it's a balancing act of having the laser at the correct intensity. He really wanted to apply this to glass and as you can see, he has a successful example of this. With this software, Dustan was able to engrave/burn an image of his grandmother onto a piece of wood. You may be able to use this halftoning techninque as it produces many halftoning designs. Some code (post processor) is needed with DotG. Dustan used IrfanView and Ximagic (plug-in for Photoshop). To make the output even better, the image can be processed by another program to create a dithering, or half toning effect. All you need is the image to be in black and white, and you can fiddle with the parameters and create a very nice looking raster engraving. Dustan's source for much of this information is Tweakie which offers a great amount of information on all sorts of CNC and engraving related topics. DotG takes an image and creates a g-code file for a laser engraver, CNC machine, or plasma cutter. This is a program I wish I was introduced to earlier as it is specifically made for engraving applications. Dustan has also show some examples of his laser cutting by producing one of those taxidermy-like 3D animal puzzles, and uses a material that I have not seen commonly used for this. Dustan uses a software toolchain that does a great job with laser engraving using DotG to create the g-code for the engraving. He decided to paint his machine bright red with black edges.ĭustan was kind enough to send us a video and a bunch of images on how he is using the blackTooth Laser Cutter and Engraver. Also, check out the new paint on his machine. He also produced some functional boxes (with lids that open and close) with designs engraved on the top of the boxes. The examples he is showing are 3D puzzles of a fly and a dragon. Update: Check out Dustans new glass etching.ĭustan sent a few images of new things he is cutting and engraving using his blackTooth Laser Cutter and Engraver.

Laser cut jigsaw puzzle software