Titanium Dioxide + Alcohol Tile Method

I finally got around to trying the Norton White Tile method (using flat white spray paint) and didn’t like using acetone or other solvents to clean up and overall just a messy thing to do. Since the TiO2 is the actual catalyst, I bought some pure powder, a “continuous” hair spray bottle, and some 91% IPA. Mixing up a 1:4 ratio seems to have worked great (4 Tbsp TiO2 powder to 8 fl Oz IPA). Shake shake between sprays for an even coat, and the best settings I found are either 2500mm/m @ 90% power, or 2000mm/m @ 80% power (I normally engrave at 2000mm/m for better accuracy, been too lazy to calibrate offset in Lightburn). Cleanup is just some soap and water.

First test, speed/power.

Unwashed:

Clean (yes, it’s not a white tile, it’s what I had on-hand at the time):

Now I got some good settings, on to some tests! First was an unglazed, but fired 3x6 subway tile.
Soiled:


Undirty:

Not bad, let’s move onto actually glazed! This is on “arctic white” and I also did some photo editing to add a fadeout to ease the hard edges of the image.
Unclean sinner:


Cleansed by the power of Dawn and H20:

Welp… I’ve been needing to do a tile backsplash in my kitchen, now I know what Imma do. Gonna split a mural up into sections and laser it. :upside_down_face: As far as durability, it’s actually molecularly fusing the titanium to the glaze, so basically to damage the engrave, you damage the tile.

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