Etched enclosures

[deadastronaut]

nice, nailed that roland space colour too...

[jens bjørn]

Might be said a thousand times before . Etching with ferri chloride produces/releases chlorid gasses.
Wear a mask or end like WW1trench war soldiers.

And
Wuhuuuu , you're doing heavy stuff. (I'm not showing anything here,for sure)

[di_rocks]

Dminner killer delay, great job!!

[Motherslug]

my builds of the past 3 months:

[Motherslug]

Roland Space Echo inspired enclosures for Lovetone Doppelganger circuits:






I also recently made these delay enclosures:

just WOW! amazing designs.
where did you get the knobs you used for the space time transporter?

[peterg]

Motherslug - those are fantastic looking etches.

[dminner]

just WOW! amazing designs.
where did you get the knobs you used for the space time transporter?

Thanks man. I LOVE that arcadiator enclosure of yours! I got those knobs from Newark

[dminner]

[vigilante397]

Love the build, can I see a full shot of that guitar?

[dminner]

Love the build, can I see a full shot of that guitar?

Thanks! And sure, here you go:

[statzern]

My first reverse etch, turned out pretty nice. This one won't end up being an actual finished pedal (notice there's some spacing flaws on the design) and I can't actually fit everything in the enclosure as of now.. Bummer!

It's a tube screamer (the GGG layout) with the fat mod and diode switching. Will up the size to a 125b and see if that goes.

With some of the recent posts, I'm a little embarrassed to even stick this up here - the bar is definitely high for designs and technique! I finally have my toner transfer down to pretty much 100% success rate, even with very fine details. I'm contemplating a tutorial video, not that there aren't enough out there already! But somehow I continued to struggle for quite some time now, and maybe I could save people some time and major headache!

[peterg]

Statzern

"turned out pretty nice" is a huge understatement. It's amazing!

[davent]

Statzern

"turned out pretty nice" is a huge understatement. It's amazing!

That's for sure!, In the second picture looks like a mother of pearl inlay rather then sanded metal.

Great design and etch!
dave

[vigilante397]

My first reverse etch, turned out pretty nice. This one won't end up being an actual finished pedal (notice there's some spacing flaws on the design) and I can't actually fit everything in the enclosure as of now.. Bummer!

I will totally take it. Seriously. If you don't want it I'll buy it, I'm sure I could find something to stick in there.

[dminner]

[hylandren]

DMINNER - another great (and highly detailed) etch!

STATZERN - You're crazy, man! That is a good looking etch and WAY better than what my first one looked like! Maybe save it and do another TS at some point using Mad Bean's TS board. That one WILL fit in a 1590b.

[garcho]

incredible work y'all, the whole page, top to bottom. inspiring!

[Linac Guy]

dude.  those look stinkin clean, man.  well done for your first ones!  I'm going to try etching with my next pedal.  Just getting tired of the hassle and cost of decals/adhesive sticker paper.  What etchant did you use?  Ferric Chloride or something else?

Thanks!

About the decals - I can definitely relate. As far as results go, while etching is a bit of a hassle by itself, it can lead to better results, IMO.

Yes, I used Ferric Chloride. Masking is extremely important. I used Press and Peel for the graphics, then packaging tape for the sides of the enclosure and nail polish for covering everything else.
One more thing to point out - don't buy a polished enclosure for etching: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=85151.0 I learned it the hard way...

Do you only use Ferric Cholride or have you used "Lye" or "Muratic Acid"? if so will they get the same results? 
I have tried to Iron on the toner image from Glossy Photo paper using an HP laserjet 6P and could barely get the image to transfer to the enclosure. I had to buy the wife a new iron too since she caught me using it on my work bench.

Thanks,
Bobby

[hylandren]

Do you only use Ferric Cholride or have you used "Lye" or "Muratic Acid"? if so will they get the same results? 
I have tried to Iron on the toner image from Glossy Photo paper using an HP laserjet 6P and could barely get the image to transfer to the enclosure. I had to buy the wife a new iron too since she caught me using it on my work bench.

Well, at least you have a dedicated iron for etching now!

You know how some people love single coil pickups, while others prefer humbuckers? Same is true with etching methods. What works perfectly for one guy, will be a disaster for someone else. Neither is right or wrong, just different.
I am a photographer, so I really wanted to etch with photo paper, because I have a lot of it around. I tried and tried, but I had a lot of the same problems you are having. PNP blue was even worse for me.

Now I'm getting consistently clean transfers with sharp edges and NO PITS, using the method below, combined with nail varnish. Best part is that the HP presentation paper Cody recommends costs a fraction of what photo paper does.
Maybe give it a try:

http://music.codydeschenes.com/?page_id=2035

[mfunky]