First Etched Enclosure... Thoughts and Photos. Any tips?

[Chris Brown]

My wife and I did our first etched stompbox a few weeks ago... pictorial ahead...

Wife shot photos while we etched but we didn't get all the steps...

HUGE THANKS TO MarkM!!! Your photo essay was a major help!!!   

We simply couldn't have had this much fun etching without your virtual guidance 


After painting the sides - before re-sanding the top... hanging dry:



I forgot about taking photos during the rest of the pre-transfer/ironing steps... sorry


Painting the air bubble cutouts...






Paint dry (we actually put a hair dryer on a metal wine rack and aimed it at the enclosure to speed things up LOL):



We forgot to photograph the etching... sorry...

Etch completed... ready to wet sand again and clean up..



Sanding the mask and paint mask etc...



Final coat of paint before wet sanding the top for the last time...



After sanding the top of the enclosure for the last time YAY:   











Things we learned or will do different next time:
 
Spend more time on the initial sanding... keep on going with the 220 grit until the nicks and scratches are worked out. I think the initial sanding is probably the most important step for a beautiful box.

Work the edges more when ironing the pnp blue

Use good paint... after having this thing on the stage about ten times it has a few indented spots in the cheap flat black i used... ($.99).

Questions I have (haven't searched for the answers yet).

What type of spray can paint would be best in the etched areas... something that can withstand nicks or indentions...

Any tips for the edges of a PNP transfer... they were the only place I had trouble on this etch... same for my first pcb etch (another post soon)... what is it about the edges that makes the enclosure resist the PNP blue so well?


Thanks for reading... please share your thoughts and experiences with aluminum enclosure etching.

Kindest regards,
Chris Brown

[Auke Haarsma]

nice pictorial! and a nice box! congrats!

Etching enclosures seems like a lot of work, but the results are stunning.

[zjokka]

Wow Chris, that is a terrific first etch. And you are right MarkM tutorial is really inspriring and helpful. It's the spreading an etch craze.

More to the point of your questions and remarks,
-automotive laquer didn't give way in my case, even with way too long etching times
-sand till you strand. You did a great job, better than me at my first etches. After every box I did I realized 'sand some more' and in addition, sand some more.
-don't etch too long -- I don't use PNP but picture paper and it looks like your mask made it through  the etching without punches.

It really does seem that PNP blue film protects better than just the toner in the case of picture paper. I did find that punching holes in the white area's of the picture paper transfer is ideal to get good adherence. It really allows all air to escape from between toner and aluminium. And that's essential to get a good transfer.

There might also be a point in mechanical sanding. i noticed the hammond boxes really are very concave and you would have to sand off so much to get it dead flat.

Maybe MarkM has some mystery sanding technique. I'm wondering long time...

zj

[Meanderthal]

 Belt sander...

Nice lookin' enclosure there, and something even cooler- a wife actually willing to HELP you with this stuff!

[John Lyons]

Yeah! That looks great for a first etch or the 10th.
The Spiky hair would be closer to the late 70's than late 60's, but you know...

Bake that paint to get it hard without waiting a week.
If the paint was still slightly soft that could account for the wear while on stage etc.

Nice one!

[zjokka]

If the paint was still slightly soft that could account for the wear while on stage etc.

Clear laquer in as many layers as you have the courage for!
Don't know if Markm does this, have to check the tutorial.



zj

[Paul Marossy]

Great job for a first try!

[markm]

Chris Brown 
That looks awesome!! 
I'm impressed!

There might also be a point in mechanical sanding. i noticed the hammond boxes really are very concave and you would have to sand off so much to get it dead flat.

Maybe MarkM has some mystery sanding technique. I'm wondering long time...

zj

There truly is no secret really, elbow grease is what it takes.
I have used some of the DA/Orbital sanders for the initial rough sanding but, just a basic FLAT wooden block and working your way up from coarse to fine sandpaper.
I start with 80 grit to get alot of the top surface flat and progress up to about 600 although you can stop at 400 and have success or go up to even 1000 if you so desire.
Dead-on FLAT is the key, along with a good transfer, good mask and "just-enough" time in the etchant is what works for me.

If the paint was still slightly soft that could account for the wear while on stage etc.

Clear laquer in as many layers as you have the courage for!
Don't know if Markm does this, have to check the tutorial.

zj

I have used clear on a few of them however, most clear will not stick well to fine sanded aluminum.
Don't get me wrong, it sticks and will look good but will not be immune to road wear like chipping etc.
Avoided paint chips is one reason I started etching. 
I think the paint needs a chance to set up a bit in Chris' case and, a couple of heavier coats allowed to dry well will wear much better.
One thing I do in place of clear coating is a good coat of metal polish and then car wax!
Carnuba wax seems to kind of "soak" into the aluminum a bit and darkens the color just a shade.
Besides, I have to confess that as the plain etched aluminum enclosures age a bit, they look quite cool!
Nice job from both you & the Wife Chris, congrats!! 

[Chris Brown]

Thank you all for the inspiring response and helpful feedback. This place is awesome.

We're going to do a few more enclosures in the next couple of weeks and we will definitely
try some new things... I'll post my experiences and compare them to this one etc etc

I did find that punching holes in the white area's of the picture paper transfer is ideal to get good adherence. It really allows all air to escape from between toner and aluminium. And that's essential to get a good transfer.

We're going to do this next time for sure... makes perfect sense... how about cutting that area out completely with an xacto knife? Any reason why that would be a bad idea?

The Spiky hair would be closer to the late 70's than late 60's, but you know...

Hey! Those are fuzz faces. LOL... I didn't realize how "punk" they looked until it was etched...

Chris Brown 
That looks awesome!! 
I'm impressed!

....

I start with 80 grit to get alot of the top surface flat and progress up to about 600 although you can stop at 400 and have success or go up to even 1000 if you so desire.
Dead-on FLAT is the key, along with a good transfer, good mask and "just-enough" time in the etchant is what works for me.

....

I think the paint needs a chance to set up a bit in Chris' case and, a couple of heavier coats allowed to dry well will wear much better.

Mark, thank you and thanks again for the pictorial... it took the "will this really work" factor out of the process... we had a lot of fun.

We started with 220... I can tell that it would have helped to start with something lower to work out the big pits etc...

I put it on the pedal board about 24 hours after painting it... it was on stage for three days in a row before it had a chance to just sit there... I'm pretty sure that it was still semi soft. Next time we'll either give it adequate time to dry or we'll try baking it.


Thanks everyone!

Kindest regards,

Chris Brown

[Plinky]

Dead-on FLAT is the key, along with a good transfer, good mask and "just-enough" time in the etchant is what works for me.

I've done two case etches so far, and I'm still not getting to what I feel is the right depth. It seems the longer I wait, the better chance the etchant has to seep through the pnp or paint and ruin my work. How long do you normally let the enclosure sit in the etchant Mark???

[R O Tiree]

Enamel paint (Revell, Humbrol, etc) for plastic model aircraft kits is ideal for patching holes in the PnP mask and also for painting large areas and also corners/edges.

I found that leaving little holes in the mask where the pots and switches centres are helps immensely when it comes to drilling later.  I also leave guide lines which help to line up the mask precisely - These get painted over with the enamel before etching. Everything is, therefore, precisely lined up and legends are aligned with controls.

As to sanding, I bought a few sponge-backed sanding pads, for coarse work, and varying grades of wet and dry paper. I use soap to lubricate the wet and dry - must be unscented and none of your "added moisturiser" rubbish. Just plain, honest to goodness soap. This gets around the problems with sanding blocks and the box faces not being totally flat.

As you work down the grades, go in one direction with the first grade, then work at 90 degrees for the next grade down and so on. I like the kind of "antique" look of aluminium when the air has got at it, so I don't bother polishing it and then lacquering.

When you get down to your finest grade and you find you're still not happy with the finish (still got lines), take a piece of it, cut it in half, wet it and soap it, then rub the 2 halves against each other for a few seconds. Presto, your 1500 grit turns into 3000 grit .

[widdly]

That first photo has me confused.  The enclosure looks about the size of a door in front of the house.

[markm]

Dead-on FLAT is the key, along with a good transfer, good mask and "just-enough" time in the etchant is what works for me.

I've done two case etches so far, and I'm still not getting to what I feel is the right depth. It seems the longer I wait, the better chance the etchant has to seep through the pnp or paint and ruin my work. How long do you normally let the enclosure sit in the etchant Mark???

Not to sound wishy-washy but, there is no "set-time" to leave the enclosure in.
Unfortunately, I can't give an honest answer because it depends on how fast the whole thing is happening.
I will say, most of the time the 2 problems people seem to experience is overdoing the etch and bad masks or a combo of the 2.
Roughly I would say about :30 seconds in the etch and then pick it up and have a look, then perhaps another :30.
They key thing to remember is, the etch does not have to be very deep at all and thinner lines seem to etch better than BOLD lines.
Also, rinse the enclosure a few times during the process, it'll slow things down for you + it gives you a better look at the progress!

[R O Tiree]

My latest complete pedal...



Etched and painted enclosure.



Here you can see where my etch resist pen completely failed to keep the FeCl away from the box. I kinda like it, though, because it looks a bit steam-punk. You can't really tell that, because of the flash, but in natural light, imagine an old DaVinci drawing...



The important bit - the guts. Very pleased with this and it's quiet as the grave when there's nothing being played.

BTW, it's a heavily tweaked BMP circuit.

[zjokka]

RO,

that is really impressive, never mind the sides, I tried a multicolor etch before and realised you really don't need a spray can - just filling the etched out areas up with a brush works fine, but I didn't get a result like yours.

Additionally, if you spray the whole box there is a lot of sanding to do afterwards.
How did you go about it?

thanks
j

[Plinky]

I guess practice makes perfect.

I'd like them to look like this one, but even lacquer isn't strong enough to withstand any abuse, as this one gotted chipped during assembly.



So I decided to look more into etching since I can't afford powder coating equipment right now. My first attempt left a lot to be desired.
This here is the 2nd attempt, which turned a little better.



And here is the finished enclosure.



My thoughts :

I now see what you mean by not having to etch the image too deep, Mark. On my first attempt I used 100 grit sand paper to try and remove some of the pits, which in turn helped remove some of the depth of the etching. On the 2nd one, I still etched it a little too long, and I still used some 100 grit to remove some of the pitting, but after painting I used 600 with LIGHT pressure and the image came out more clearly. I'm doing some "test etches" right now. I'm gonna etch a trashed enclosure for less time and only use 600 grit with light pressure after etching and see how the results look. Patience is the key I guess. Any way to wet sand with an electrical orbital sander??? I'm not sure my arms can take much more of this. 

[R O Tiree]

Cleaned all the gunk out of the etched pattern (old toothbrush and lots of water), then polished all the PnP off. Once I'd got a nice finish, I filled the grooves with paint with a brush and, once it had gone off, I gently sanded it down.

I like that OD-808, Plinky - very clean and minimalist. Neat.

Thanks for your kind comments, zjokka .

[markm]

 
Nice job to you both!
Very impressive.

I now see what you mean by not having to etch the image too deep, Mark. On my first attempt I used 100 grit sand paper to try and remove some of the pits, which in turn helped remove some of the depth of the etching. On the 2nd one, I still etched it a little too long, and I still used some 100 grit to remove some of the pitting, but after painting I used 600 with LIGHT pressure and the image came out more clearly. I'm doing some "test etches" right now. I'm gonna etch a trashed enclosure for less time and only use 600 grit with light pressure after etching and see how the results look.

600 grit AFTER etching will work superbly.
The 100 could -or- should be used as the initial anding to smooth the enclosure BEFORE etching.
If your getting any pits in the surface of the enclosure after etching then the mask is burning through 
and that's not good.
Maybe double check how you're mask is before giving a dunk.
One of the reasons I use flat black is this......
After painting on the initial mask, hold the box up to bright light and if there are any holes -or- parts that aren't covered well enough, the bright, freshly sanded aluminum and the black make quite a contrast making it E-Z to spot any potential problems in the mask.
That's todays TIP! 
Really, GREAT Work fellas!!

[Plinky]

Thanks, both of you. I don't have much in the creative looks department, but hopefully I can make up for it in cleanliness.