Can anyone on here laser engrave a large mirror?

[Phill Fenton]

Have you considered etching the glass? You could make up masks using a vinyl cutter and adapt the method described here:-
http://www.instructables.com/id/Etch-Your-Own-Mirror/

[Martin Pearson]

Sand blasting or etching with an etching chemical would be the way I would go with something like that, try a search on the forum as I am sure there has been mention of chemical etching which you could do yourself.

Have you already had a look at the lay out? Might come down to how small the text on it is, there is obviously a limit on how small you can plot text for a mask.
I have sand blasted some fairly small stuff with good results but as I say there is a limit on what you can do :lol1: :lol1:

[David Mitchell]

i havent saw a layout yet, but i had in my head.

80 odd names with table names, text could get pretty small. likely to be a script font? so not sure how the fine detail would hold down to the mirror as a mask so when etch cream etc was applied would it be sharp,

the lass had saw some etch vinyls i had put on glass doors, originally she asked if it could be etch vinyl on the mirror.

[Martin Pearson]

I would be wary of using a script if the text is likely to be very small, maybe keep larger text like a heading in a script but names etc which will be smaller in something else. Small script might be very difficult for people to read & if this is a table lay out/seating plan you want to make it fairly easy for people to be able to find where they are sitting.
Text on a mirror is going to be more difficult to read that black text printed on a white bit of paper so remember that if printing something to see how it looks.

[NeilRoss]

quote David Mitchell:

i havent saw a layout yet, but i had in my head.

80 odd names with table names, text could get pretty small. likely to be a script font? so not sure how the fine detail would hold down to the mirror as a mask so when etch cream etc was applied would it be sharp,

the lass had saw some etch vinyls i had put on glass doors, originally she asked if it could be etch vinyl on the mirror.

You can get masking vinyl which should cling better. If the text is very small then maybe worthwhile speaking to somebody who does glass engraving/sand blasting. They can produce fairly fine work.

[Simon Worrall]

I dont see why frosted crystal vinyl wont outlast the marriage. 🙄
The glass is not going to be exposed to the weather, and it wont be handled.
Its not going to be easy to read, and it certainly wont be easy to weed.

[Martin Pearson]

quote Simon Worrall:

I dont see why frosted crystal vinyl wont outlast the marriage. 🙄
The glass is not going to be exposed to the weather, and it wont be handled.
Its not going to be easy to read, and it certainly wont be easy to weed.

I think you are probably spot on with that Simon, a cast etch will last almost indefinitely. Only reason why they quote a life span of 10 years odd is because under normal conditions it would be subject to direct sunlight, wind rain & regular cleaning. Or in my case sunlight, wind & rain :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

Biggest problem with any film, etch or mask is going to be the weeding, does your plotter have tangential cutting mode David?

Neil, I would probably use a normal cast vinyl if I was going to sand blast that, mask films tend to be thicker & harder to weed & weeding is probably going to be difficult to start with :lol1:
Time it would take to etch that a cast should hold up well enough.

[Martin Pearson]

Another option might be rotary or drag engraving on mirror acrylic with a cnc router, don’t know why I didn’t think about that before, text can be reproduced at a small size without any need to weed :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: