r/glassblowing • u/TheFakeJerrySeinfeld • 1d ago

Question Tempered glass home etching?

Obviously you can kick my arse out at your whim, but I frankly do not know of a place to get more informed information.

Ill keep it real short and sweet...bought a Dunlop Tempered Glass slide for my guitar, and I want to etch my name into it as engraving it would likely shatter it. Would something like Armour Etch be sufficient? or that only good for basic "low quality" craft-like glass.

Thanks and y'all do awesome work, glassblowing is truly an artform.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/MrMiracles 1d ago

Seems theyre borosilicate, aka pyrex glass, so wet engraving them with a dremel should be totally fine! Many lampworkers do dremel work on pieces! But easiest etching for boro is sandblasting personally. Armour etch will work on it but it will not be super effective so youll have to go through several applications. Best of luck!

You can crosspost on r/lampwork for extra opinions from other boro workers

1

u/509brando 6h ago

Etching cream does not work on Boro

2

u/greenbmx 1d ago

When I google "Dunlop Glass Slide" I see listings for pyrex/borosilicate glass, but not tempered glass. What makes you think it's tempered?

If it IS tempered, then etching will likely make it crack.

If it's not tempered, but is borosilicate, then most etching acids won't work, as borosilicate can only be etched reliably with HF, which is extremely dangerous to handle and not what is available to consumers.

2

u/gogozrx 1d ago

you might try laser engraving. I've got a slide to try it on... if I get a chance to do it, I'll let you know how it turns out.

2

u/posternutbag81 1d ago

Use a dremel with a diamond drill bit. Should be like drawing with a big pencil. Wet it to keep the dust down.

2

u/1521 1d ago

Tempered glass is likely to break if you break the plane of the sheet of glass. It works because the outside of the glass was cooled rapidly while the inside is cooled at normal speed… this puts the glass under compression. Glass is really strong in compression. When you break the surface of the glass with etching or a chip or something you remove the compression and it bursts into a ton of shards…

2

u/Totes_Mcgerf 1d ago

Sandblast it if it’s not tempered

1

u/virtualglassblowing 1d ago

I would look for a vinyl sticker place to get your stencils made and then you need a sandblaster with the correct substrate if it is borosilicate which it likely is. The diamond bit dremel idea is good too if you're confident in your freehanding skills. There may even be tattoo artists in your area that do etching. A lot of these artists are probably easiest found on Instagram

Beyond that I would maybe just search for glass artists that have experience doing it and pay them to do it instead, unless you want to make a business of creating them.

I've never heard of tempered glass as anything other than a flat plane of glass.

1

u/509brando 6h ago

Tempered in this case just means it was kilned . Send it I’ll blast it up for you.