OWJones

Permanently coloring etched glass?

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Has anyone come up with a food-safe, dishwasher-safe method for permanently coloring etched glass?

So far I've tried using a permanent Sharpie marker (looked like it was going to work until it got exposed to glass cleaner), acrylic 'glass and ceramic' paint (peeled off when I pulled the vinyl stencil off), "sun catcher" paint (ran right off the glass and vinyl and left no color behind).

I have had good luck using Rub 'n Buff, but I'm pretty sure it won't hold up to a lot of washing, and may not be food-safe.

I've seen glass stains advertised online that sound like they should work, but I'm skeptical.

Is there a solution to this quandry or am I asking for too much again?

If it matters, I am etching using a sandblaster - I have Armor Etch creme but I like the sandblasting better. I am willing to use the creme if there a way to follow it up with color that works that doesn't work with sandblasting.

Thanks!

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there is also a air eraser like a airbrush but it etches glass also they run about 60$ or so.

That's what I started with - they work great, but only cover a small area at a time - it would take me a few minutes to fully blast an area covered by a 3"x3" stencil - once I upgraded to a larger blaster, I can do the same size stencil in 15-20 seconds instead, and it produces a deeper etch.

The air eraser is great for doing freehand work or when you're working in tight spaces, and I'm not planning on getting rid of mine, but if you need to etch a set of 6 or 8 glasses/beer mugs, the bigger blaster (mine was around $25 from Tractor Supply) makes a big difference.

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$25? You must be using one of those stand alone guns. Not a cabinet right? How do those little guns work? My garage is already full of tools, theres no room for a cabinet. I would like to get one of those guns, but more then an air eraser.

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I've got a cabinet, just haven't set it up yet. The stand alone gun works great, but it's very messy without a cabinet, it gets all over you and even wearing a full face shield and a 3M respirator, it's still dangerous. I got a benchtop cabinet from Harbor Freight Tools - it had been $159 but it had a bad gun so they marked it down to only $60 - they always seem to have at least one in their clearance area. I didn't care about the gun, since I already had two - I just wanted the cabinet to contain it all, so it was a steal of a deal for me.

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