English Channel Etched

[markm]

Just finished up the etching for my English Channel and wanted to share it with you fellas.
This one took some time but, I am pleased with the way this one came out.



Kinda looks like a small VOX huh?
It sounds JUST like my AC30 that I sold many moons ago.
Thanks RunoffGroove and stay tuned, I will post some completed pics soon.
   MarkM

[Seljer]

Wow, that is a nice one

[chokeyou]

 

that is pretty sweet. did you wash in some black paint or is that whats left after the etching?

[dano12]

Mark, your work just gets better and better. I think its going to be hard to surpass that English Channel, but I know you're up to the task.

Was that from Officially Licensed Circuits or did you source it yourself?

Keep up the good work

[H.Manback]

 

wow, just wow, nice idea you had there as well, works excellent with etching

I really need to get into this etching stuff

[RDV]

That's absolutely in-sane. You're doing the best work with this I've ever seen. Bar None.

RDV

[$uperpuma]

H O L Y  C R A P. 

[fixr1984]

OMG!!! I cant believe how awesome that looks.
Keep on doing what you are doing.

[bluesdevil]

Sweet Jesus!!! That is perfect..... fine job indeed. I saw your Fuzzerella box and it looked killer as well. I'd like to see more naked broads on pedals for sure, hahaha!!!

[BDuguay]

Um....er.....ah....hmm... ah nuts

[sta63bmx]

That is really, really cool.  And since you're so good at etching, maybe you can offer some suggestions on this one.



That's gonna be the cover art for the EM I'm building.  That's what I want it to look like in the end, anyways.  Grey circles on the right are knobs, grey circle in bottom left corner will be the footswitch, and the orange and blue are the On and Rate lights.  This box comes apart so the top is actually just a flat piece of aluminum.  I'm assuming I should...

1. Wet sand the whole piece
2. Paint the unetched side with black spray paint and get the edges, too (with a sharpie or paint)
3. Print a mirror image NEGATIVE copy of that cover art and go ahead and erase LARGE black patches to avoid air bubbles
4. Clean surface with lighter fluid
5. Iron it on
6. Etch it
7. Wet sand
8. Clean goop out of etch
9. Paint again
10. Wet sand again

I gotta say thanks for the photoessay.  Without it, I would have been thinking stickers, and that just sucks.  Hope to be finished by Friday morning.

[stumper1]

Just plain AWESOME!!!!!

[Eric H]

Just finished up the etching for my English Channel and wanted to share it with you fellas.
This one took some time but, I am pleased with the way this one came out.



Kinda looks like a small VOX huh?
It sounds JUST like my AC30 that I sold many moons ago.
Thanks RunoffGroove and stay tuned, I will post some completed pics soon.
   MarkM

Looks absolutely terrific.
  I've been following the progress of box etching, since I posted mine around 6 years ago. I got the idea from the pictures of the great G.S. Wyllie's Moonrock, etc. I believe Mr. Wyllie originated the idea :
http://home.mindspring.com/~wylo/
Here's a couple of mine:
http://users.abac.com/ehensel/stompbox/pedals/pedals.htm

-Eric

[Phorhas]

Oh man!!!

I'm shocked

[Night0wl]

Veeeerrryyy Nice!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[markm]

You guys are very kind with the compliments.....Thanks very much
The prep work took some time on this one. I really took my time only working on it here and there over the course of a week or so.
The design is mine......well, a variation of Dick Denny's!
I did the layout using Photoshop. The VOX logo I scooped from an owner's manual PDF found on the internet.
The grillecloth was a diamond pattern found using a Google image search!
The actual etching took less than 2 minutes in the acid with one rinse in between. When the area to be etched is of a larger size such as
the grille in this situation it generates alot of heat quick and is a good idea to try and keep the heat to a minimum by rinsing the project.

For sta63bmx,
It looks as though you have the step-by-step photoessay pretty much down pat!!
A flat piece maybe a little tougher to etch than a standard enclosure as there are no sides to hold onto.
Maybe put a couple of masking tape "handles" to the back side of the piece you're etching and lay it face down in the acid.
That way you'll have more control over what's happening in the etching process.
One of the keys to a good etch is surface prep and NOT leaving the project in the acid for very long.
You don't need a tremendously deep etch to have good results.
The English Channel here in the pics, after a three coats of semi-gloss black and final sanding of the top, the etched area is almost even with the un-ecthed portion of the enclosure....meaning it isn't that deep but.

that is pretty sweet. did you wash in some black paint or is that whats left after the etching?

Semi-gloss black paint was used to fill in the etched areas.

There's a bigger picture of the English Channel in my Layouts Gallery.

Once again guys,
Thank you!!

[sta63bmx]

Thank you so much for the "handles" advice.  I would have been going "Ok, uh.....well, it's in yucky chemicals."   I will give it a try, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

One thing about etched graphics that people haven't made *too* much of yet is that I think doing the artwork and being able to see the box is really handy, and you can also put in dots here and there for drilling template usage.  I just made mine in Powerpoint.  I made a bounding box the same size as the surface that I'm working on, and this way I can lay it all out before I make the box, kinda like super cheesy CAD.

Without your photoessay, I would not have known that you could do this sort of thing.  Thank you very much for taking the time to explain it.

[markm]

Without your photoessay, I would not have known that you could do this sort of thing.  Thank you very much for taking the time to explain it.

Thank you for the kind words.
I did the photoessay in an attempt to give back something to this board and it's regular members.
I have learned soooooo much from each and every one here that I couldn't begin to list you all individually!
This is a great hobby for me and brings me alot of satisfaction and the whole etching tutorial was "my contribution"
to this BB and it's members.
I have a fantastic collection of pedals thanks to the DIY community and I have learned alot here.
   Thanks to all of you as well 
Good luck and happy etching.......feel free to ask any questions.
I'll help if I can!
   MarkM

[soggybag]

That's excellent!

[bancika]

Looks excelent man!