Newbie looking for hobby, possibly more

Looking to get into Glass etching. Thinking Wine bottles, coffee mugs, flat Glass. I need a hobby and glass interest me. Think it would be cool to etch scenes or sports onto Wine bottles or cheese boards from slumped Glass.
Wondering what type of machine might be good for a starter.
Thanks

You are looking at an investmet of about 1000-4000$ depending on what manufacurer you choose.
Basic 40W CO2 laser, plus rotary attachment or motorised rollers.
Flat glass can be done with a 500$ chinese knock-off.
Depending on what you actually want to etch it might be faster, cheaper and easier to use stencils and these nice acid mixes.
Will give you much finer details too as the glass is actually eroded instead of being chipped and shattered by a laser.
Especially for fragile glasses I would definately prefer acid etching over any laser.

... I've engraved glass with a 445nm@2W-diode too - sprayed the surface with black paint and engraved the paint -- while evaporating the paint, the temperature in the spot is enough to melt the surface under the coating ... otherwise the 445nm-light will simply shine through the glass ..

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Quote
VDX
... I've engraved glass with a 445nm@2W-diode too - sprayed the surface with black paint and engraved the paint -- while evaporating the paint, the temperature in the spot is enough to melt the surface under the coating ... otherwise the 445nm-light will simply shine through the glass ..

Nice one

The black paint was under the glass or on top?

THX
Olaf

Obviously on top as otherwise you would just burn the paint off the underside.

... I've used in on top - but could be worth a test with "shining through" the glass and evaporating the paint on the bottom too ... could give finer molten traces

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Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]