Etching boxes

[soggybag]

Here's a couple of pictures of etched boxes.
I used PNP to create a mask. Then etched the boxes with ferric chloride.
On this first one I put the container with the acid in a bath of hot water to warm the acid. The action was vigorous, a little too much. In about 6 minutes  the whole was a little over etched.

This second attempt. I used the same batch of etchant, which had to be weaker after etching the first box, and did not heat it. I etched this box for about 15 minutes. The grooves are not very deep but it shows more accurate detail. I got a lot of little pocks where it seems the acid leaked through the mask or the mask had little holes in it.

This last one looks better than the rest. This one was etched the same as the last. But this time I sanded the top of the box down with 400 grit sand paper before applying the PNP. This seemed to make a big difference in the quality.  

I think I will try the last method again but sand a little smoother. Maybe I'll finish off with some 600 grit.

[smashinator]

That's pretty cool!

[gez]

Beautiful, especially the last!

[Nasse]

Quess you could fix a little the looks of the first by slight sanding and/or putting some dark paint in the etched grooves and adding some contrasting color on smooth top

[Peter Snowberg]

Those are beautiful!  :shock:  Imperfections and all... each is a work of art!

Thanks for posting them!!!

[soggybag]

Thanks for all of the comments. I've ordered a few more boxes hopefully these will see some improvement still.

Where do you get etchant? I always buy at RS. I think there has to be a cheaper alternative. I may need another bottle pretty soon...

[Pushtone]

I'm the guy. Remember me?

I humbly hand over the title of coolest finish on a stomp box to you soggybag.

But why not include your control lables in the PNP mask? For the knobs at least.

[Peter Snowberg]

Wow!  :shock:

You two have really pushed the envelope!

Pushtone, I just bumped your etching thread up. FANTASTIC work!

[soggybag]

Thanks for the compliments. But I think this still needs some more development.

These were sort of a test design. I'm working on some new ones that might have labels on them. The boxes were already drilled before I started. I think next time I will start with new boxes.

[mojotron]

How did you keep the sides from being etched?

Or did the PNP only cover the dark area and the rest is etched?

[pi22seven]

Man, those look sweet!

[turing]

lovely finish on those boxes...........are they aluminium? i notice they have a coppery sheen, and my limited knowledge of ferric chloride tells me that it etches copper.
can you do this process to hammond enclosures and cheaper equivalents?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

There are a few things we could probably learn from artists who etch.
http://duke.usask.ca/~semenoff/ has developed a number of less-toxic approaches and low cost approaches, including a copper sulphate based aluminum DIY etch (number 8 on that page). I don't know how deep it would go, far enough for filling with paint.
Copper suplhate (bluestone) can be got very cheap in bulk (or very expensive relabelled as an anti-root agent for sewers). It's a common agricultural chemical.

[MartyMart]

Thats beautiful looking work  !!
I'm going to have to look into doing this, they look every bit as good as
those "Moollon" pedals   www.moollon.com

Marty.

[birt]

i've etched a lot of sink with salpeter (i hope it's the same word in english) acid and i actually like etches with some little holes and such better than the really clean ones. they have more charactar.

i covered the sheets in some kind of laquer and then scraped in the laquer with a needle to let the acid to the sink. i also drew with the laquer itself. and offcourse not the etch itself was teh result here but a print. like this one: http://users.pandora.be/vandijckheffen/bert/bowie-ets.jpg

how did you come up with that design? and as asked before, is it alu?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Birt, if by 'salpeter acid' you mean nitric, be careful!! quite apart from the danger of the acid as a corrosive, the fumes are VERY BAD INDEED!! worse than hydrochloric, or even chlorine. It's a major damage for art etchers.

[soggybag]

These are aluminum boxes. There are two of the Taiwanese 1290 NS from Small Bear, and the other is a Hammond 1590 B.

I cut the PNP a little smaller than the top of the box. This made it easier to register. I aligned the PNP on the top of the box then taped a small piece of paper to one side that wrapped around and was taped to the inside of the box.

I heated the top of the box with the iron. Then I pulled the PNP against the paper tab and layed it down on the top. Since the top is hot the toner will stick it in place.

Then I put a piece of tracing paper over the top of the and ironed for about 5 minutes.

After ironing I imediately ran cold water over the top, then peeled the PNP off.

I think I got best results with the last box. I think the secret was to sand the top of the box until smooth. The alumuinum boxes have a lot of imperfections, especially the Hammond boxes, to get the PNP stick down well without gaps the surface needs to be smooth.

I also followed all of the typical procedure when making a PCB etc. I tried not to touch the toner side of the PNP. I cleaned the top of the box with a scrubby cleasner, I used Bon Ami as per the instructions at Tonepad (great PCB etch tutorial there check it out). I did not touch the top of the box after it was cleaned.

Before etching the boxes I used some nail polish to mask out the corner around the face (the edge around the top face). Then I wrapped electrical tape around the sides to mask the sides of the box.

This worked pretty good, but the acid gets everywhere, even in the tiny gap where the two ends of the tape met. I had to clean up the boxes by sanding away the black marks left by acid.

I put some notes up on my website: http://webdevils.com/stompbox/index.php?entry=entry050714-091547

I had majored in print making in college. So I had some experience making etchings before. Though I haven't etched anything in 15 years!

I had been thinking about etching boxes for a long time but could not get started for lack of information. Then I saw a Post by Pushtone on thos forum, I think the subject was: BSIAB with Etched Graphics, his box was very impressive, and he had only used Ferric Chloride as the etchant, and I thought "heck what am I waiting for!". Someone also posted a link to the Moollon site. After seeing these I thought "Whoa", there's a lot of possibilities for this.

[bwanasonic]

Very nice indeed *soggybag* . I used to be what was called a *dot-etcher*, in the days before Photoshop. I remember a couple of liquid masking agents - one more or less like nail polish called Maskoid.  Kind of nasty and used acetone for a solvent. The other was more like creosote and came off with mineral spirits. I think this is more like the traditional resist used in plate etching. It might come in handy for coating the sides, etc.

Kerry M

[Gilles C]

I'm wondering if this liquid mask could be used for some of this work.

http://www.misterart.com/store/view/001/group_id/636/Grafix-The-Incredible-White-Mask-Liquid-Frisket-Set.htm

I already use it for airbrush painting, and you can get some cheap at Walmart.

Nice job, Soggybag.

Gilles

[soggybag]

One thing I left out, I poured a small amount of etchant in a plastic tray and put the box face down in the etchant. I used just enough to cover about an 1/8" in the bottom of the tray.

I keep this etchant separate from the etchant I use with copper boards for fear of strange chemical reactions.

The aluminum seems to foam up a lot in the ferric chloride, especially when the ferric chloride was warm.