A friend of mine and I first watched this here video almost 2 years ago now - at the beginning of 2018 - and, since then, she's made two acquisitions which fall into the category of "over fifty bucks": ① A vinyl-cutting machine (a Silhouette Cameo 3), and ② a laboratory power supply (0-30 VDC, 0-5 A). Everything else is minor purchases from the grocery store or hardware store. Since she made those purchases, she has eletro-etched _dozens_ of projects, from front-door signs to small "branding" metal squares on home-made handbags and such. The technique outlined in this video is _exactly_ the method she still uses today, including making those little fences out of plexiglass (of which she still has, and re-uses, about fifteen or so). We've watched other electro-etching KZread videos where the etching process itself is a _little_ bit different, essentially using a salt-water-soaked piece of cotton or something, bypassing the salt- and vinegar-filled fenced-in area, but neither of us has tried that method, so we cannot make any claims regarding whether it's any better or worse than what _this_ video describes. I can attest, however, that the method she follows, as outlined here, produces crisp, detailed results. Wanting to save some money - and to see if it worked at all - I _myself_ have also tried this method here, but instead of using a vinyl-cutting machine to produce a pattern (as I do not own one), I taped some blue painter's tape onto a small sheet of aluminum, and then I cut out my pattern using a hobby knife (eg, an X-Acto knife), and that actually turned out okay. Then, for a power supply, I went to a local second-hand store and picked one out from the surprisingly large collection of donated power supplies which were no longer paired with their respective appliances. If I recall correctly, it was _rated_ to output 12 VDC at 3 Amps. I modified the power supply in the way that one would in this case: I cut off the end that plugged into some appliance at one time, I separated the 2 wires from each other, I stripped off the ends from those wires, and then I attached some alligator clips to the ends of those wires (if memory serves, I used both solder _and_ screws). When it came time for me to _use_ that power supply, although I could tell that it was definitely doing something, as bubbles were visible, it wasn't pushing _nearly_ as much current as was required (in order for me to see results in minutes). Perhaps if I'd left it plugged in for a day, I might have gotten the results I was looking for. My point on that additional tidbit is that if you are considering doing some electro-etching yourself (dear reader), then I recommend getting *_either_* an adjustable car battery charger (a 2/5/10 Amp charger, for example - _not_ a "fully automatic" battery charger) *_or_* some type of adjustable laboratory power supply (such as 0-30 VDC and 0-5 A, which can be purchased at online retailers for as low as ~$50). Anyway, my friend and I are _both_ grateful to you, 556x45FMJ, for creating this video. My friend likes to make stuff, and I am sometimes the beneficiary of those creations. :).

@trm6020

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the helpful info!

@davenicholls5821

Жыл бұрын

F .p77 Hghhyb

Thanks, I have used your technique on several occasions. I have learned that if you remove the vinyl prior to the etch going deep enough, all is not lost. For simple designs, paint the surrounding metal with nail polish careful not to cover your design. Reglue the plastic and proceed with etching, or touch up with the q-tip charger method

Thank you for the informative video, you make the process seem easy enough to get very good results w/o being overly involved. Thanks again for this.

I feel like im watching a PBS special on a Saturday afternoon! Very well done friend!

Great video. I really appreciate how you showed step by step how it's done. Nice end result.

It should be noted, you'll want whats referred to as a "dumb" baterry charger like what he has in this video. Dont get one with any sort of LCD display or any fancy features. Otherwise the onboard computer wont "detect a battery" and wont put any power out. Unfortunately most places only sell the smart ones. So Craigslist or garage sales work good. Even if you tried use a smart charger and tried to hook up a battery parallel to the workpiece, you would only get the amount of amps shown on the battery, which is practically useless. I plan on using a used PC power supply, which will achieve the same effect (possibly more powerful). There's videos on how to wire that all up.

@billreaves263

5 жыл бұрын

what about a 12V power inverter that was used to power a camper it maintains about 12.8 volts

@bryanst.martin7134

4 жыл бұрын

He mentioned using the 2 amp setting. The El Cheapo batt chargers in that range are rarely automatic.

@chrissewell1608

4 жыл бұрын

I have a desk top, variable, power supply, for testing and operating 12 V DC electronics & VHF radio. It allows you to dial up the volts & supplies up to 35 amps, as needed. It would work just fine!

@ktms1188

4 жыл бұрын

Also it is very easy to disable by pulling a couple screws on the back. When I need a “Dumb Charger” I just wired in a simple toggle switch, in line of the voltage controller. You can search KZread here on how to do, it is very easy if ever need to also.

Nice work, and the best idea and result I have seen...

I just finished doing this myself and it turned out amazing! Thank you for this video! Couldn't be happier with the results. Now I want to etch everything hahaha

best etching video I have seen by far!! Thank you. Half way through I was like.....wtf is he gonna do with the acrylic? Then I was like ohhhhhh that's WAY better than the other videos. Good job!

@715rdmail

4 жыл бұрын

I have to say you read my mind. I've never seen better at home etching!

Great video! I bought my wife cricut for Christmas and just got 2 80% to build. You've got me excited to try this

Very Nice. Back about 17 years ago I used to hand cut stencils for glass etching. That computerized cutter looks like a great tool to have. Thanks for sharing.

@kellyvcraig

4 жыл бұрын

I used cheap contact paper (cream colored paper showed the pencil and ink lines the best, even better than white) to do that too (bottom of the page at Flicker ( www.flickr.com/photos/functional_art/ ). I did all the etch work in the photos using an Exacto knife, but, now, have a cutter. On the knives, I figured out, quickly, since the tips often broke within minutes on a big job, I was better off having a diamond plate near and just repointing and sharpening the end. Had one tip last fifteen years.

That video was awesome! Best video I've seen on KZread thanks so very much. I just finished an 80% lower and I can really personalize it now, just need to buy stencil cutting machine like you have so I can get very detailed work. Thanks

Hands down best DIY video on KZread thanks!

Thank you for posting this video. Amazing detail, making it a very easy process.

Great tutorial. Thank you for taking the time to video and post it.

Good video, very well explained how to do this. Sounds like something I might try.

That came out incredibly well, nice job!

That was well explained. Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

Well done Sir, thanks for sharing your technique.

Thanks! My son and I did a test etch tonight on a strip of aluminum before doing his 7mm08 receiver/AR10, hopefully tomorrow. We built an acrylic dam just as you did sealing with hot glue and hung the second electrode about 1/2 - 5/8 inch above the work piece. We used a spare UPC 12 volt battery which provided right at 2 amps. We started etching too long, and our second test at 3 minutes was almost perfect but a little deep. Thus we will use 2 minutes 30 seconds just as you did. I guess since our current, voltage and salt concentration matched yours, it's not surprising that the time would also. Oh, the solution got to 100℉. Great help!

I did this using duct tape, exacto knife, 2 x 9volt batteries (wired in series), two pieces of copper wire, a chopstick take away kind. Cotton balls and some salty vinegar. Good video thanks.

That smoke detector battery alert is killing my ADD

FREAKING AMAZING!! wow thoroughly enjoyed the video, never knew this was possible

Excellent video. I tried doing this with salt water and a car battery with a charger hooked up to It. It worked, but took 12 plus hours. Your results took two and a half minutes and had sharp edges. Mine took over 12 hours, and over time in the salt water, the edges of the vinyl started to lose adhesion, so the edges were kind of ragged. Will try white vinegar and salt . Thank you for sharing.

Best etching video ive ever seen

way more involved then most videos.. great results. im going to do mine this way

Good work well done my friend

Great informative video super pumped and confident I can etch some small projects after your video. Thanks

well done! very professional looking!

Fascinating, and great job. I do a lot of copper plating (you can see my copper plated wood turnings at the LumberJocks and Instructables web site addresses, below). Essentially, you are doing the same thing, using the etched item as the anode and the charger to move material from the anode to the cathode, which could be a copper or iron bar or wire (cheap is good). I use a DC power supply and everything I do, generally, only requires a couple amps or less and only about 300 millivolts (.3 volts). Food for thought, when considering power sources, like the one mentioned below. I experimented with this a few years back doing the Q-Tip approach, but building a tank around the portion to be etched kicks butt. For that experiment, I used one of the toy train power supplies I picked up at a garage sale. I suspect that would work for this too. ____________________________________ Kelly Craig's Lumberjocks web site: www.lumberjocks.com/projects/348297 Instructables web site with acrylic turnings with copper plated turned ends: www.instructables.com/id/Making-Light-Catching-Laminated-Wood-Plastic-and-C/

Wow this is art! Awesome!

This was a great video thanks for sharing it!

Thanks, great video and well done. Appreciate it!!

VERY well presented and easily understood.

This is an excellent how-to video. Thanks.

that's fantastic, thank you for this awesome video! Very informative

best video on youtube for this method... thanks

Thanks for sharing! You answered a bunch of questions!

They make high heat vinyl. I use it for masking off projects that I have to cure in an oven later, Cerakote/etc. It'll keep you from having a ruined project should your solution get hot.

@BigWillSD

4 жыл бұрын

Do you have a brand or model # of the vynal?

@travisfender8851

4 жыл бұрын

@@BigWillSD Avery 235-s is what I've been using. It leaves a little bit of adhesive residue sometimes, but it easily comes off with rubbing alcohol or by dabbing it with duct tape to pull it off.

I used a simple 1/8 steel flat bar for the negative electrode. I've used steel for brass, aluminum and stainless steel without issue. The steel does corrode in the salt solution so I did buy a brass flatbar to try. I only used the brass on a stainless plate, and the etch didn't come out as well as I'd have liked. Though I have no idea if the fault was the different metal or something else

@charlesartificer2158

8 жыл бұрын

+Joseph Gilbert How did stainless steel stand up in the solution as an electrode? Or have you tried that combo?

@larryb2967

8 жыл бұрын

+Joseph Gilbert I was wondering, can you do this with Anodized Aluminum or does it have to be raw form. I have some 80% lowers that are anodized so I'm wondering if it can be done. Thanks

Good stuff and thank you. Debunks the fear of trying to etch.

Great video,very well put together👍👍🎯🎯

Great video! Very very detailed

Man that scratching at the end killed me lol

That dam you built on the receiver would make a mighty fine SHOT GLASS!!! LOL Good work!

Thank you for posting the video 👍 🍺 good info

Looks good, looks damn good. I think I will try this set up. It's not all that difficult.

Really neat! Great video

Great work and it's just that simple. Simple?!!!

Very informative, thanks for posting.

I like this method, good video.

Very nice, my family has been in the sign business since 1932 my grandpa, my dad, now myself. My only suggestion is to use masking tape on the corners when you're weeding your stencil it holds it perfectly flat and still on your table , it also holds it while masking and use a squeegee to rub the transfer tape down...... It's worked for us since vinyl came into vogue in the 1970s

That is amazing!

The vinyl cutters are pretty awesome these days. I was truly impressed with the results. I would love to see what happened after you anodized or cera-coated that lower. Did you go back and paint the inlayed areas? Thanks for making this video, great job!

Bro, thanks for the tip. Awesome.

Thank you for sharing. Great video

Very freaking cool brother....thank you for the video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever etched over an anodized lower? I've read about using Easy-Off over the stencil. I was wondering how the vinyl will hold up to the easy off. Thanks

Very good work!

Superb, well made and educational video

Can you apply enamel paint into the etched recess? Set it off with some color? Thanks, Bob

In the world of vinyl cutting it is called weeding tools.

Pretty cool brototoe. Thanks

Very cool process. Thanks for the video instruction. Just a design suggestion: when putting type on an item and spending so much time prepping the item, make sure the spacing on your letters is correct. As a designer, my eye went immediately to the excess amount of space between the capital T and lower case r in the word Tread. Almost looks like T read (two separate words) instead of Tread. Otherwise, nice design!

Nice Work & Thank You for sharing. I’m doing a small project & don’t have a cutter. But I did find find some fingernail stencils at the Dollar Store that look pretty neat, for what I’m doing. Just FYI👍🏻

@timirwin9599

4 жыл бұрын

John Smithy Hey, Yes I did, they worked Great! I just used stencils & some knives form Dollar Store for practice. Patterns vary.... numbers & letters seem hard to find. Just try’n to understand technique. Pretty simple. A printer would be ideal, for sure. I did find a POOL of H2O/salt gave a deeper penetration. Be sure to mask off well that’s for sure.

@timirwin9599

4 жыл бұрын

I’ve found finger nail polish works well, paint on & scribe (freehand stuff) then etch. Good for masking tight spots too. Acetone takes it right off.

@timirwin9599

4 жыл бұрын

John Smithy Cool 👍🏻🇺🇸

Looks great

That was one of the most comprehensive videos I've seen in quite some time. Thanks. How much do you charge the end customer for etching work? Is it piece, area, or amount?

Thanks for sharing. Great info.

If you don't have access to vinyl you can give the surface a couple of coats of hat beeswax and wait until it hardens. Once hard, use those pick like tools and carve down through the beeswax to the metal surface when making your design. Do you etch and then remove the wax with boiling water.

Pretty cool hack. Thanx for the video.

I've done this before this video was made. When you want really good details, don't cut a stencil. I use photo sensitive circuit board resist. It very easily gives you small or large details, is easy to expose (light bulb) and attach. You just need a transparent sheet of vinyl to print your image on, place it over the photo-resist, expose it to light and rinse the resist with water.

Thanks for the great video! Is there a benefit to doing the etching this way as opposed to using the "Q-Tip method" and just tracing over the stencil with the solution instead of building the tank around the stencil and filling it with the solution?

@556x45FMJ

6 жыл бұрын

mddrudge I have tried the Q-tip method and didn't like it. It didn't seem to etch as cleanly or as deep, and was very time consuming. I simply didn't have the patience.

Very cool thank you.

Excellent video :)

Excellent. Thanks !

Outstanding technique. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

@556x45FMJ nice video! What 80% lower is that? Thx

Would a clay barrier be sufficient for le reservoir??

Another note: If you reverse the anode and cathode the copper will precipitate onto the other metal and plate it with copper. I did this using a car battery charger to plate my golf clubs. It didn't work with the one white metal 5-iron replacement. I don't know what it was but it was white metal; some kind of amalgam. The other clubs were Clevelands of a bronze looking metal. They looked great for a while then they turned that brown patina coppery color. but they still look interesting like an old bronze statue without the pigeon poop.

Good video.

Can you show the completed build? Great video!!!

Nice job!!

Dude that came out fn sweet

Most excellent!!

Will this work on any metal or just aluminum?

That’s pretty cool

Nice color fill and bam!!

That worked well and was very impressive results. I was wondering what was the background music? I haven't heard that song in years and enjoy it. Thank you for the good information.

I am confused. If heard that only AC current blackens the etch? I've been trying with a 17v 3amp DC psu but it is hardly Etching at all? I am using the earbud method.

What if you have a lower that has been already coated?

Great video; thanks for taking the time to make it. I’m curious about how you finished it. Does the aluminum have to be raw or can you bead blast first? If you bead blast second, how do you protect the image?

@evox786

4 жыл бұрын

Whatever surface you're looking to etch needs to be bare metal in order for the electricity to flow. Bead blasting can accomplish this if you are starting with a painted surface.

@teasnuts

3 жыл бұрын

If my lower is black, it needs to be bead blasted first?

Awesome job, think I will have it done.I don't have the patients to do that.

@AO-ip6yx

4 жыл бұрын

How many patients would you need do you figure? He did it by himself without any patients! Unless of course he is a patient. I doubt it because usually a patient wouldn't have that much patience...

What tools did you use for that fine 'picking'? I am so going to try this.

Please change the battery in your smoke detector. Thanks.

@alexmurray7337

4 жыл бұрын

William Whittaker I was thinking the same thing😂

@rickbauer7088

4 жыл бұрын

Glad it wasn't just me hearing things!

@BigWillSD

4 жыл бұрын

Lmbo! When I played slot of cod live they would always be kind enough to let me know when its time to change my SD battery. Ain't played in a long time so thanks for the reminder lol. I cant hear them at all

Does this work on my AR lower that is not raw metal and is still factory black???

Wow. From 23:30 it is really suspenseful!

Very nice thank you🕶"

Watched your video a few times gearing up for a try myself. Just have some questions. The piece of metal you hook the negative jumper cable to, that is suspended in the solution. What metal are you using? The receiver is Aluminum Is that piece of metal aluminum as well or something else? do different metal combinations work better or is there problems?Once again thanks for sharing.

I always did mine with the qtip method, and of course I didn't get all of it even, idk why I never thought to use a dam!

Stupid question but do I have to remove the anodizing from my 80 percent lower first? I have been blasting and cerakoting them anyways so I dont think I will buy any more anodized lowers.

@556x45FMJ

6 жыл бұрын

Norris yes the anodizing insulates the metal and you won't be able to etch with this technique through anodizing