Very nice work indeed. Howevsr, what was even more impresssive was the etching. I will be more than obliged if you share the secret with me.
Thanks, george
really no secret to the etching. its very easy. I bought a used electro etching kit from ebay. its called an etch-o-matic.
www.etch-o-matic.com since then I have experimented with other ways and I can tell you that you can very easily make your own.
first is the stencil, the etcho matic kit comes with a film coated silk screen. (not sure if its silk really but guessing). you print your logo or name on a piece of transparency film (the clear plastic sheets like you use for an overhead projector) and lay it on top of this film. you put this under a u.v. lamp for a couple of mins and then put it in developer solution. what it does is remove the plastic from the silk sheet that did not get hit with uv light. so you have your name in silk and the rest is a platic barrier that will block the electricity except through the silk part.
now that you have the stencil you tape it to the part and then take your etcher and wet it with electrolyte. plug in the etcher and press it down for about 5 seconds and lift, then repeat about 10 times and you have a nice dark etch.
now for the home-made way.
2 choices on the etcher: ac verses dc current. then etcho matic does both with a recitifier diode. dc current makes a deeper etch but doesn't turn very black, just sort of a dark gray, ac current makes a good black but not very deep. so what I do is start with dc to get the depth, then switch to AC to make it black.
I had a 12v ac transformer I bought at Radio Shack and a rectifier diode I bought there to. (don't have the part numbers but any 12 v ac transformer of decent size should work) and if you have a 12 v dc transformer as well then you wont need the rectifier diode.
attach the positive lead of the transformer to the metal piece you want to etch and the negative lead to a q-tip soaked in a salt water solution (as much salt as you can possibly dissolve in water) shake off excess solution from the qtip so it isn't dripping wet and just start dabbing at your stencil you should hear a little sizzle sound and start seeing some brown or black come on the qtip if its working. if you see that then you are on your way.
remember dc = deep, ac = black when etching steel. havnt done brass or anything else yet.
I have seen people use finger nail polish to paint on a stencil on the part then once etched used fingernail polish remover to clean it up. I have also seen electric tape and a craft knife used to make a vinyl stencil.
edit- should also add that the uv stencils you make are re-usable many times. I have yet to wear out my name stencil.
2nd edit - when I say positive lead to the metal piece you are etching, that's assuming you are using a dc transformer, ac transformers it doesn't matter which of the 2 wires you use.
