i love to etch

[Mustard]

Hi, I am new to the forums, I am a 22 YO electrical engineer to be from Croatia  and I build pedals! ... and tube amps!

just thought I'd share my recent etch that turned out looking great, I use my own methods that I developed over a course of one year, would be happy to share what I did if there is enough interest, I did this one for my buddy but I am open for orders!








Dump your thoughts!

[Kipper4]

Sweet etch man and welcome.
Any chance you want to share how you did it.
Thanks

[pappasmurfsharem]

Id be interested in your process as well. If for no other reason than to compare to others

[Mustard]

Just wrote a complete guide on this Croatian forum so I cant be bothered to do it in english today, will do in a few days tho if you guys really want it

here is the link with some of the pictures from other forum tho :
http://www.glazbeni-forum.com/topic/56114-mustardova-%C5%A1kola-nagrizanja/

Nevermind the croatian language lol.

Glad you like it, cheers!

[Gristlepig]

Looks really nice!

Good on you for your love of the etch! I find it super tedious (though the end result is usually pretty badass!)

[Mustard]

yeah, it is pretty exausting, took me like a year to master polishing and etching, but I guess it payed off, it looks as close to factory finish as it can get!

[duck_arse]

it looks like you've been doing it for a very long time. excellent results. and we always like to discover new methods. where have you been all this time?

what would your labels be in croation, just out of curiosity?

[Mustard]

it looks like you've been doing it for a very long time. excellent results. and we always like to discover new methods. where have you been all this time?

what would your labels be in croation, just out of curiosity?

I have been in my workshop developing my perfect etch 

They would be mostly the same lol, only Mustard's we would say Mustardov, custom would be something like "prilagođen" and volume would be "glasnoća"

[Kipper4]

I google translated it here

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=hr&tl=en&u=http%3A//www.glazbeni-forum.com/topic/56114-mustardova-%u0161kola-nagrizanja/

[Gus]

The etching around the switch looks a lot like the perforations you use to tear paper along a line

Have you tested how the box reacts to a hard stomp, will the part of the box around the switch break away?

[duck_arse]

custom would be something like "prilagođen" and volume would be "glasnoća"

scribble that on your next build, sounds like some extra mojo to me. "glasnoca OK". (sorry for using wrong 'c'.)

[bilo01]

Awesome build Mustard. I took a 1 year course 20 years ago. But only for etches to be printed on paper. Forgot the most of it though. Don't know if techniques are comparible.
Love to see a build report

[add4]

How do you get such a great polished result?? That looks great!

[Mustard]

The etching around the switch looks a lot like the perforations you use to tear paper along a line

Have you tested how the box reacts to a hard stomp, will the part of the box around the switch break away?

I have not yet tested it but the chasiss is thick enough, the print is only 0.5 mm deep so there should be no problems

How do you get such a great polished result?? That looks great!

Polishing is equally as hard to master as a good etch, I have tried several buffers and several polishing pastes, what I found works the best are cloth buffer wheels such as :
and dry polishing pastes, basically a rock that you buff the wheel with. And the key is to keep the buffer clean with a steel brush and I even wash them monthly.

Polishing can be tricky and you really have to develop a touch for it, if you press too hard all of your paint comes out of the groves, if you press too lightly you end up with stripes/messy finish, learned the hard way 

[PRR]

> wrote a complete guide on this Croatian forum so I cant be bothered to do it in english today

Google Translate does a remarkably readable job. Your Croatian is probably very good (gramatically correct). A couple of words, Google does not know what they are. I bet "feriklorida" is Ferric Chloride". but "cipoteci"?

Pictures are at
http://www.glazbeni-forum.com/topic/56114-mustardova-%C5%A1kola-nagrizanja/

Here to introduce his etching technique that I developed about a year ago, I tried all sorts of things, but really anything and everything and it showed me the best, I have a special thanks because I almost whole process I've developed, trial and error, so let's go.

First you need to buy films with photo lacquer (I tried photo lacquer spray, they transfer paper, transfer film, nothing works well like this)

They come in coils by 2 meters guess, about £ 50-100 are not exactly remember, ebay is your friend.

Peel the protective film part and put the previously polished surface and a warm iron, protecting some cloth from direct contact with the iron.

Polishing not explained in detail because the Internet is full of tutorials for polishing aluminum.

I forgot to trigger image Deal with foil, but you will be the principle in the following figures.

Print out your desired design on the foil, laser printer. (If I see someone steal the design!!)

Optimal printed out three copies of the same pattern, cut out the rough and consolidate on a piece of glass, duct tape yl something similar (as thinner glass because glass except what bends light rays and poorly permeable UV light), I use 2-3 mm thick glass.

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

Approx method of crossing the glass surface.

You will need a source of UV light, I 've agreed to such a box with UV ultrabright LEDs, I think it has less than 100 on the board.

Since their radiation angle about 20 ° optimum distance from the light source to the surface is about 17 cm. Why ? So in order to get uniform illumination of the whole pattern rather than the "patches" because the light does not overlap.

How it kinda looks, I used an old adapter from the laptop power supply and with a bit of handling the basics of electrical engineering I made a mix of serial and parallel joints so that all lamps receive the same supply voltage (to be read in the datasheet of each diode, rated voltage and current that pulls the this voltage), you must ensure that the adapter is used because a lot of current draw when it all boils.

Simply lay the frame on the glass to the light source.

According to experience, I would say that about 15 minutes of exposure sufficient to paint hardens, it does not hurt a bit longer.

This is how it looks after illumination:

Now we have only developed in the developer for a photo finish. The same procurement cipoteci, bags of powder is about one liter of solution and cost about 10 kuna.

Developers will eat unlit parts and we will get ready-made template for etching.

You must be very careful to mix the solution, too little water and will eat you all, and that which should not be, the same as if the water is hot before action can amplify multiple (I learned all this the hard way)

I still love nail polish a little " fix " some irregularities, if the air got under the foil and something small, and around the edges mandatory. Then the mask surrounding the edges with a few layers of electrical tape tightly stretched and ready for etching !

Personally, I use a mixture of water and feriklorida al can use anything.

During the etching (which takes about 20 minutes usually) were obliged to undergo a dry cotton swab gently over the line design, thus removing the aluminum pieces that fall off during etching, turns out a lot neater and evenly than if they just left that corrodes (also learned the hard way)

This is how it looks after etching:

For some, it's good the way it is but I still fill these tracks some paint and polish the all again. Recently I use powder for laser printers, so it stung al does not matter what it charged.

Here are some for showoff:

It should be noted that you will definitely ruin the first few housings, as well as for each skill it requires a lot of time and a lot of attention, I changed twice a foil for this pedal say it was not well received, needs and experiences to know how deep etching is deep enough, the lighting also, every design is not conducive to good chemical burns, etc., but there I hope I helped you, like what I said, I developed this technique for about a year so you will need this've saved at least a couple of months of fruitless attempts.

I agree this pedal for a colleague, but I'm open for orders if there is interest. For all the details about the contact on anything in their inbox, so reading!

[Mustard]

Ah yes, nevermind that, its just the name of a local store for electronics

[noisette]

Thank you for sharing your tips (thanks PRR for translation), I was actually pondering trying sprayresist and will drop that now.
I already figured that a totally flat surface of resist is required for accurate etching.
And I never heard of that film resist, is it like this one?
http://www.octamex.de/shop/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=28&category_id=5848924494118370762daa6f026e22f7&/Tenting__Laminat_fuer_Bestueckungsdruck__1_Bogen_kaufen.html

Crude kind of humour btw, to make the stomp switch perforated, like a r´n´r kamikaze pedal, you can only switch it ON...