Laser Engraving Marble Settings

Paint the area of the marble you are going to be engraving with a thin layer of white water based paint.

Laser engraving marble settings.

Starting with a dark color stone is the best way to achieve a high contrast without a color fill. Also keep the power setting as low as possible. The lasers wattage hardness of metal desired mark etch polish anneal and the required time contrast depth will have to be considered when deciding on the final settings. This week we are laser engraving marble coasters with quirky space icons on the speedy 400 flexx laser.

However even pebbles can be processed well with the laser due to the smooth surface. Laser engraving on stone is particularly suitable for polished ideally dark natural stones such as granite marble or basalt. Having less variables will help to find the optimum settings faster. When laser engraved correctly it should produce a white or gray mark.

We first put masking tape over the coasters engrave. As a starting value use 100 power p with around 30 speed v for a laser engraver with 60 watts and then 100 power and around 15 speed for any machines with less than 60 watts. This is mainly due to the contrast capabilities. The following are suggested laser cutter configuration settings for various materials.

The more homogeneous and fine grained the stone the better the results of the stone engraving will be. Also available is a laser cutter user guide. The trick to engraving marble is for you to be as patient as you can. This will help make pencil marks for outlining your engraving much easier on you since otherwise the pencil would just rub off the marble.

If you have other settings you d like to suggest please send an email to design help ncsu edu with the details. Unlike the full power at low engraving speed that is required for wood or paper processing we recommend different settings for hard stone surfaces. Black marble and granite is the preferred stone for photo engraving in the laser engraving industry.