Etch of a different....color

[hylandren]

   I have etched a few enclosures, and have had good luck so far. But on this next one I need to do things a little differently: I need the enclosure to be painted one color, and the etched labeling to be painted another color. So I've been mulling over the best way to tackle this....
   1. Paint the whole top the color it will be, let it cure thoroughly, then paint a light coat a coat of the color for the etched lettering. After that dries, lightly sand the top back to the color I want it to be. But I suspect that it won't sand evenly, and while I love the relic'd look, thats definitely NOT what I am going after here.
   2. Paint the top with the etched lettering color first, let it cure thoroughly, fill the etched area with melted wax, apply the top color, thoroughly let everything cure, and the clean away the wax. Pretty labor intensive.
   3. Paint the whole top the color it will be and then carefully hand paint the lettering with a very small brush. But since I have no real painting skills, I suspect it would end up looking like a 3rd grade school art project...

  Has anyone figured out a workable method to do this that they care to share?

[deadastronaut]

i would go with option :1 . 

paint colour, dry, fill the etch ...let dry totally...then carefully fine sand wiyh a block and soapy water......clearcoat.

as long as your box has been sanded flat with a block it should be fine...

[davent]

Option 1. As long as you have clearcoat  compatable with you paint, apply a coat or two of clear before going with the second fill colour, it will give you a bit more leeway when it comes time to sand off the fill colour, less chance of burning through your under colour to the bare enclosure.

[hylandren]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Option 1. As long as you have clearcoat  compatable with you paint, apply a coat or two of clear before going with the second fill colour, it will give you a bit more leeway when it comes time to sand off the fill colour, less chance of burning through your under colour to the bare enclosure.

It does seem like applying some clearcoat before the final color would give me a little more sanding later.
Davent, have you actually used this method?

[davent]

Hello,

I've never etched an enclosure but in painting them with acrylics do mutiple colours/layers and anytime before starting laying on a new colour i clearcoat (isolation coat) so i can more easily strip or manipulate what's to come without messing up what's already been painted.

dave

[Mustachio]

I think this will depend on the actual etch method and detail in the etch. Lets say you want your lettering a different color then the rest, and it is recessed(should work with a reverse etch too) and not to fine in size. Should be able to paint and then cover with some masking tape and then press the top of the tape into the lettering as good as you can so you can see the indention's. Now take a Exacto knife and cut away the tape inside the lettering till its perfect. Paint-???-profit!

That should work but might take some trial and error to get how you want it. You might want to stick the tape to your shirt first to pick up some fibers and be less sticky. Depends on what your using. Could get some frisket tape even which is used a lot for stencils.

Besides that , other ways I've seen people do it is where the box is still bare metal but the etched areas have different colors . They just rough tape off the different areas and color each one separate then sand off everything above it leaving the diff color paints in the different etched areas.

I have a feeling it will be hard to do the other method without getting the relic look.

Good luck!

[psychedelicfish]

Another (probably useless) suggestion: Etch your enclosure, remove the etch resist, and anodize your enclosure. Apply an ink of the colour you want the non-etched part to be to the whole enclosure, then paint the etched area as you would normally do.

On a side note, I haven't seen anything about anodizing enclosures for stompboxes, has anyone tried it?

[Maik]

Try this:
color the etched than paint everything with maskfilm (airbrush fluid to mask some things) then sand it then the other color. Then you can rub off the mask film. 2 colors!
like this:
http://www.airbrush-shop.ch/contents/de-ch/d156.html

[hylandren]

Thanks for the replies and ideas guys. I really appreciate it.
Maik: The link you provided took me to a site in German (I don't speak German) but your description was enough to give me the idea of what you meant and how it would work. It seems like this idea would work great and I would totally jump on it, but it would involve me buying both an airbrush and compressor for just one pedal. Otherwise a great idea. BTW: How would I cleanly remove the mask from down in the etched area when all through, without removing any of either the enclosure paint or the etch paint?

Thanks again, guys

[davent]

Liquid Frisket once dried is very easy to remove, latex, so you just snag a corner and peel away, you then keep using the removed bits to pull up whats still on the pedal. I think it might be a problem to precisely remove the excess before painting the second colour and you need to be sure that the frisket will resist the type of paint you are using, if so worth a shot.

[Maik]

but it would involve me buying both an airbrush and compressor for just one pedal.

No! Just use normal color (spray, brush). The funny thing is: this mask is used for hair ect. You can scratch some "hairs" with a needle, so you can use more colors.

[Pettol]

I've used pens like these http://www.graffitishop.eu/product/189/molotow-marker-127hs.html for that. They are thin and the paint is easy to work with and sand off. They're waterbased, which makes rinsing easy too. You have to clear coat the enclosure to make it permanent though.
I've only used them for small parts (text) so far.

I have tried the melted wax option and NO!

[hylandren]

Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions and attempts to help.

I've used pens like these http://www.graffitishop.eu/product/189/molotow-marker-127hs.html for that. They are thin and the paint is easy to work with and sand off. They're waterbased, which makes rinsing easy too. You have to clear coat the enclosure to make it permanent though.
I've only used them for small parts (text) so far.

-Pettol - Great suggestion, and I will keep those in mind for other builds, but they don't have white, which is what I need for this build.

but it would involve me buying both an airbrush and compressor for just one pedal.

No! Just use normal color (spray, brush). The funny thing is: this mask is used for hair ect. You can scratch some "hairs" with a needle, so you can use more colors.

I can apply the mask solution with a brush? Have you actually done this? Wow, a mask that's easy to apply, covers/protects the first paint, and then is easy to remove after the 2nd paint seems almost too good to be true!  Sorry, but I am not understanding the "scratch hairs" joke comment though....

[garcho]

+1 @ markers. I use oil paint markers to paint in the etched areas so I can avoid any stray 'dots' (they shouldn't be there in the first place, I know, I know...). I don't see how that helps with the OP, though.

I've been thinking about this for a long time and haven't come up with something yet. I'm excited to see how the community solves this one!

One option you probably aren't interested in is to do a reverse etching, paint the enclosure, then sand lightly to get the graphics/letting to pop, then spread some paint very thinly over something slightly absorbent (so there are no paint blobs) and set the enclosure face down, like you're using a stamp. Or paint the letters with paint marker (easier than when they're etched in). I've tried with limited success. If I utilized patience it probably would have worked better.    I think I expected to fail and didn't give it all my attention. Reverse etching is not fun, btw.

[Pettol]

This was done with Molotov markers (see link above):

[Maik]

 [/quote]
I can apply the mask solution with a brush? Have you actually done this? Wow, a mask that's easy to apply, covers/protects the first paint, and then is easy to remove after the 2nd paint seems almost too good to be true!  Sorry, but I am not understanding the "scratch hairs" joke comment though....
[/quote]

You can apply the mask with a brush. After masking clean the brush, when the mask dry you can throw the brush in trash.
And now the "joke" thing-it wasn´t a joke. After the mask is dry, take a needle and scrach on the mask. It´s usualy done when airbrushing hair. Think of a head with mask where the hair should be. Scrach the hairs in the mask and spray it. Then cover the scratched mask film, scratch some more hairs and spray them. So you can make hair with 2-20 Colors like real hair. On a box you can color the mask piece with more then one Color, multicolor mask   

[hylandren]

Thanks to everyone for some great ideas!

Okay, Pettol, you've convined me. I am on board with the paint pens.
But I will need to find a distributor in the states, so I don't have to pay for excessive shipping from the UK.

[garcho]

I use these oil paint markers; they're kinda crappy but kinda cheap:



A few colors, too (including white).

@Pettol The picture you posted looks like the letters are embossed into the paint! What's the deal? Looks nice.

[Pettol]

@hylandren - I'd be surprised if you couldn't find them over there, or something similar. Remember that the etch needs to be rather deep.

@garcho - Thanks. It's etched, spray painted (blue, semi-transparent) and then the text was filled with white.

Not sure I'm gonna do this for the actual box. White on blue is so unforgiving. Any flaw will shine like a star.

[deadastronaut]

what about reverse etch...

paint

sand/pick off  'raised etch'

then place face down on a flat freshly sprayed surface..(card/metal/photo paper...hmmm, just thinking aloud..

as you were...