Etching Glass

[Crypto]

I had bought a diamond drag bit that was quite expensive and was thoroughly disappointed in its performance. I attempted to etch a military symbol about 5 inches long and 1 inch high and the diamond wore out before it finished. I don't know if i had received a bad tip or what but had to get a project out asap.

So in my hasted I attempted to use a diamond etching bit for a Dremmel #7134 and to my surprise it did quite well and actually carved the glass vs just etching it. It did so well i actually set it up to do a multi layer cut in glass first cut was 1/32 and the second was 1/16 to give a 3d effect. Unfortunately I didn't save a picture of the project, but just for fun i etched a 3 dollar picture frame glass i got from hobby lobby to show everyone. The vector was not very good either :(

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[Crypto]

BTW I made all my cuts with the glass submerged in water, The bit will burn up if you don't use water. My first cut I used a spray bottle, but later on I submerged the glass using a cookie pan and 2 sided tape.

[myxpykalix]

You wouldn't think a diamond would wear out with glass? But the other bit looks like it worked quite well. That's a good tip about submerging it in water but i would have thought the tape wouldn't hold. What brand of two sided tape did you use? Good job...

[bobmoore]

Nice recovery with the dremel bit Crypto. You went 1/16 deep in one pass?

[elcar903]

looks good, and thanks for the info on hoe to cut on glass :)

[jTr]

Could you clarify- I get the impression you shifted to an engraving type path with the dremel bit spinning. Is that correct, or did you simply drag it with motor unplugged?
Nicely done!

Jeff

[Crypto]

To answer some questions, to get to the depth of 1/16 I made 4 passes @ approx .0156 a pass.

As for the tape, I used an industrial 2 sided tape I got from Lowes to hold the glass in place. I also used a heat gun to warm the glass and tape prior to putting it on the glass, this made the adhesive more sticky when applying it. Since there is no draw to the bit I just need to keep the glass from sliding around.

As for the engraving I added the bit to my tool database as an .04 end mill and cut the glass using the pocket profile with a spindle speed of 12k, .5 feed rate, and step over of 40%. I haven't really pushed this bit yet to see what feeds and depths I can get out of it either, but if anyone tries I like to see their results.

One more note the bit will wear over larger cuts so I broke down my jobs into segments so I could bump the z down as it wore down. FYI The picture( 5x8 ) that was posted was cut to a depth of .02 and took approx 30 min with no wear of the bit.

[joe]

I'm not sure a CNC is the best tool to frost glass. Sandblasting is the way to go. Far and away it's sharper, cleaner and faster. All you need is a little sandblast resist and a little blast cabinet. I'm sure you could find someone in your community who would be glad to assist.

Little projects like these should blast in about five minutes. But if you want to use your router, just for fun, that's reason enough to continue.