Etched enclosures

[Eddododo]

not exactly etching, but a little copper 'plating' experiment. these are all the same pedal, different lighting

[JoshGreen]

First post as this is my first etch, its a phase 90 with dual controls.
More details about it are here if anyone wants to have a look.
http://kidontheslope.blogspot.co.uk/

[Jdansti]

Nice deep etch!  Good job!

[deadastronaut]

nice...

[vigilante397]

First post as this is my first etch, its a phase 90 with dual controls.
More details about it are here if anyone wants to have a look.
http://kidontheslope.blogspot.co.uk/

Love the LED placement on that as well. Killer job

[deadastronaut]

warning: etch cheat...





its only for my looper, so i just ironed toner + clear coated   

[Beo]

Since we´re talking about acids and finishes, I wanted to share my method and tools to etch. I´m going to make a quick guide, if someone needs more, let me know it and i´ll try to expand details:

- I begin with a quality negative of my desing printed in a laser printer. I go to a copy shop where I obtain quality copies in glossy paper, very similar to those used in quality gossip press  . I ask for glossy paper (not the kind used in photos, just glossy but still without that characteristic plastic feeling of photo papers. Hope you understand me).
- After wet sanding the enclosure with grain 360 and 500, I clean it with soap. You can use any product, but soap is good.
- Strong ironing going over the whole surface with the tip of the iron. I make all possible direcctions (vertical, horizontal, both diagonls) leaving the flat of the iron some minutes between each direcction.
- When I see all paper stick to the encluse I leave it to get cold before putting it into water.
- I leave it in water until it peels off alone.
- Remove all the cellulose with your finger and check everything have transferred ok.
- Steal nearer nail polish (can also be yours  ) and with a thin brush protect everything you can. Also make a border throughout the whole top of the enclosure to avoid acid leaks.
- Mix 1 part of nitirc acid (agua fuerte in Spain, stong liquid used to clean filthy things like forgotten baths  ) with 2 parts of 10% hydrogen peroxide (the one used to cure little wounds)
- Put it in each etchable part with a dropper. Don´t make lakes with acid, put what you need avoiding bubbles (if it bubbles means that you put too much)
- After 3-4 minutes remove the acid with a cottom ball and put new acid.
- Repeat this boredom for 1 hour and a quarter.
- In the last 20 minutes you can add more acid to the enclosure if you want a deep etch. But be carefull, the process at this stage can deceive you.
- Also in this last 20 minutes (more or less, with practice you "feel" what´s going on) you can use the cottom ball to remove part of the black stuff created due to the acid action. Helps to improve the depth.
- After all this is done, clean with water in a safe place (don´t spoil nothing or your wife/mother will have some words with you) and make sure that the etching has been depth enough.
- Clean the whole thing with several cotton balls coated with nail polish remover (the one with acetone)

After all this you can end in two ways:

- Paint in black (choose your color) all the etched areas, correct with wet sanding, polish and clear coat.
- Don´t paint the etched desings, clean it to the bone, polish and clear coat.

For polish I use my drill and those two famous compounds (the blue one and the brown one).

Hope it helps you as much as all tutorials in this forum have help me!!!

PS: Someone asked for a tutorial while I was writting mine... here it goes my humble experience.

Hey, I appreciate this. I've always used FeCl, so I just went and bought some NaOH to try. For anyone not in the know, 1ml of water is 1gm (by definition). Also, your comment about not too much pressure to avoid smudging is something I've struggled with in the past. Too much pressure and you get smudges, or the whole image shifts. Too little and you get lots of toner not transferring. Paper is a key factor as well. I've been using a magazine paper that has given me best results to date, but I'm interested in trying the HP Glossy Presentation Paper that someone recommended. I just can't go to PnP blue, after wasting several sheets early on... 2$ per sheet is crazy. Very fine steel wool works great to get the black crud off and getting everything shiny.

[noobamp]

great advice ! thanks for that!

[Beo]

Hey man, glad you had success with caustic soda and my tutorial! That last one looks great, hope to see more etches from you!

Cheers,
Graham

I think I had the wrong quote in my last post. It's Graham's Etch Tutorial I meant to reference. I haven't tried your method yet, but now I have the NaOH, as well as HP Glossy Presentation Paper which I want to try, so fingers crossed for more consistent, no smudge transfers!

[Hexjibber]

Hey man, glad you had success with caustic soda and my tutorial! That last one looks great, hope to see more etches from you!

Cheers,
Graham

I think I had the wrong quote in my last post. It's Graham's Etch Tutorial I meant to reference. I haven't tried your method yet, but now I have the NaOH, as well as HP Glossy Presentation Paper which I want to try, so fingers crossed for more consistent, no smudge transfers!

Cool, let me know how you get on with the Caustic Soda!

[jubal81]

My first - and I guarantee last - experiment with copper electroplating. Ruined a couple already-etched enclosures, my favorite pants and spent 8-10 hours swirling it in the copper bath and polishing it back.
Once the copper looked OK, I rubbed shoe polish in the etched-out areas, wiped the surface and shot it with a few coats of lacquer.

http://cl.ly/image/2q2c310Y3Q3Q/Copper%20bath.jpg

[bluebunny]

You copper-plated your pants??  Now that's dedication!   

Great result, btw!   

[Jdansti]

^^Beautiful!!!

[deadastronaut]

f.....g cool...came out great.


gold?.

[Perrow]

You copper-plated your pants??  Now that's dedication!  

Great result, btw!  

LOL, literally.

[psychedelicfish]

My first - and I guarantee last - experiment with copper electroplating. Ruined a couple already-etched enclosures, my favorite pants and spent 8-10 hours swirling it in the copper bath and polishing it back.

Aluminium is well known for not being nice to plate on to, for the same reason you can't solder on to it. It forms a highly unreactive, insoluble oxidised layer really quickly, so copper and/or solder won't stick. It does mean that aluminium is very durable in terms of corrosion though.

I think the best way to plate copper (or other metals) on to aluminium would be to put it in your bath of copper solution and connect the power up with the enclosure connected to the + end of your supply, etch away the surface of the metal, then switch the power leads around without removing the aluminium from the solution. Normal surface preparation (lots of sanding and a clean with acetone or something before the etch/plate, etc) would need to be done to a very high standard.

[Alejandro B.]

Similar to my old Rusty Fuzz1. Custom built for a friend. It´s going to house a fuzz face.





Already published in the main thread, but since it´s an etched pedal...

[bluedog]

Just started my first etch using Graham's tutorial. I have got a good toner mask on the enclosure after a few attempts. However, there are a couple of parts that could do with touching up. Is there anything that can be used to touch up and mask small areas when using caustic soda? My understanding is that nail varnish wouldn't work when using caustic soda.

Thanks

Dale

[deadastronaut]

hi dale, ive never used caustic myself, only ferric,

but nail varnish does a good job with ferric,

is caustic too aggressive then?...if so i would think it would bite through toner too...hmmmm....


@alejandro:  nice etch/design man, love the skin..

[bluedog]

Thanks for that. I think I read somewhere that caustic soda was too aggressive for nail varnish. Going to touch up with nail varnish and use ferric just in case. Will post results.