I want to start up a business for engraving mirrors, glas plates and plexi. I already do photoengraving, and my customers as sometimes photos on mirrors etc. so I'm looking for a laserengraver that can do that. I have found the Laserpro Spirit very interesting, but can someone tell me how you engrave a photo onto a mirror. It very shiny and I think that the beam will reflect into the lasersource and destroy it. Am I right? You read also that you can engrave it from the back, bud how does that work. can someone explain that very clear.
regards
bruno

There are two types of mirrors; bottom reflective and top reflective.

Bottom reflective are the type that are good for laser etching. You etch off the back side and then it shows threw on the front. You can then spray paint the back side so that you have a solid color show through. Or another idea is take a colored digital photo and print it onto mylar then engrave the same photo on the back side of the mirror and place the mylar photo so that its color shows through. You now have colored photo on mirror.

The Top reflective mirrors are ones that are used with you laser to reflect the laser beam. These are not for etching..

Use PhotoGrav 3.0 when etching photos onto mirror.

thanks for the reply and explication.
Can you find the bottom reflect mirror in a normal company that makes mirrors, or are they specially made for laser engraving?

These are the mirrors that you look at yourself in in your bathroom. There is nothing special about them for laser engraving, just regular old mirror that you can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot.

maybe a stupid question, bud i looked at a mirror and at the back, there was a grey 'hardcover', no carton bud something solid. I can't imagine that you engrave that and it will show on the front. I know it is very stupid, bud I can't figure it out.
regards and thanks for the patience

I guess I would need to see a picture. Or just take the hardcover off if you can. You want to engrave away only the thin layer of mirror on the backside.

thanks for the reply and explication.
Can you find the bottom reflect mirror in a normal company that makes mirrors, or are they specially made for laser engraving?
The mirrors that you buy at any store are bottom reflective. Top reflective optics mirrors as used in a laser are specialized items with few manufacturers.

How we can remove the chips from an engraved glass ? Any idea please.

Take a brown paper bag and rub it on the surface where the chips are. They will disappear!

Derek Kern

One point- use a face mask and change it regularly, you don't want to be breathing glass dust. Oh, and you don't want it in your eyes either!

Thanks for both the gentlemen. The chips are not around the engraved area. These are stick inside the engraved areas.

Dear Nancy

Could u tell us more about the name of the software. Can you provide this free software to us ?

Thanks.

Hey all.
The laser burns away the backing of the mirror which also helps burn away the silver reflective coating which is very thin. I have to use all my 30 watts and engrave at 3 inches per second for it to work properly. Don't forget to reverse the picture image so it comes out properly looking from the front.

I use just plain old steel wool to clean up the back surface of glass debris and chips and wipe off with a clean cloth then paint. If you want to get creative then you can use different colours for different parts but I don't have the time to muck about with all that so they just get a coat of good quality matte black enamel paint.

You also have to disassemble the mirror from it's frame or just remove the backing material to expose the back of the mirror surface and engrave directly onto that surface.
Don't worry if you think you are asking a stupid question as we have all been down that road before and the only stupid question is the one you DON'T ask.
It's all a learning process but an interesting one.

here are some examples. ( I have posted them on your other thread too.)

mono, thanks for the clear explication. Do you do engraving for business of for hobby? if for business, how do you set pricing to engrave a mirror with a picture of a client, so no standard piece, but something with some work on.
thanks

We engrave for the business but really don't sell too many. We have people interested in them all the time but there isn't too much money flying around here so people don't buy them very often. We have done a couple of orders for pictures of loved ones and sell them at $49.95 but we don't have much expense with the business so we sell them cheap. Some businesses in the USA sell them for $99.00 for a 1 foot square mirror tile. Our main sale for the laser is with Scrapbooking letters and names in Chipboard.
We use Photograv and Corel draw V X3