December 24th, 2009

Etching 101 – Graphic transfer & Touch-up

We now begin lesson 2 in the multi-part series Etching 101, Graphic transfer & Touch-up. If you haven’t read through the first part- Sanding & Masking- go back and do that first. If you’re ready to move on and are anxious to get to the etching, too bad- gather this stuff up, first:

materials

  • Household Iron- Any iron will work, and be assured it won’t be ruined.
  • Lighter Fluid- If you can’t find any, rubbing alcohol will do.
  • Press N’ Peel- You’ll probably have to order this online. Smallbear electronics can hook you up.
  • Your Graphic- A nice, sharp black & white graphic, printed at 300dpi or more.
  • The enclosure- from Part 1
  • Heart-shaped cookie cutter- No, not really.
  • Black enamel model paint (not pictured)- Used to touch up any errors in the transfer

Alright, this step in the process can be the most frustrating, so be prepared for a little trial & error. I suggest you read through this entire article before attempting anything, and if you take your time it should be relatively painless. The first thing to do is get the graphic for etching in order.

Part 2 ⨠

by Preston | Posted in TUTORIALS | 3 Comments » | Tags: ,


3 Comments »

Comment by Howard
  • Hey Preston,
    Thanks for answering my question on part one. Here is one for this part of the procedure. Instead of making a photocopy of the graphic, could the Press N Peel be run (and printed) through a laser printer instead (assuming you have one)? Isn’t the toner the same (or similar) to a photocopy? This would save a step, and be a bit more acurate.
    Thanks again for this.

    January 15, 2010 @ 6:54 AM
  • Comment by Chris
  • Hi!
    I realize you don’t update this place, but I still wanted to give it a shot….

    I took “the step” and ordered the stuff that is required for a PNP to etch-whatever. Great tutorial on that one by the way.

    I’ve got two issues at this point though:
    1: my PNP wont “do the job” on the whole surface, i was anal with the ironing but still it gave me semi-crap resuts – please explain this part of the tutorial in greater detail….
    2: My etching got pretty f’d up. My guess that the reasons of failiure is
    a) to exposed to the acid mix.
    b) Bad P’N'P-mask (see above)

    Please get back to me.
    Epic DIY Love,
    Chrstian from Sweden

    July 31, 2010 @ 5:40 PM
  • Comment by Preston
  • Hello Christian-

    Make sure you are removing any bubbles when first ironing the PnP onto the enclosure. The black parts where there is toner will start to stick to the enclosure pretty quickly, so it’s best to push the air bubbles to any blue parts of the transfer, or ideally out from under the transfer entirely.

    As to your second problem, it all depends on how long you exposed, what temperature, and the detail of the transfer. If you have fine detail, you’ll want to expose for short amounts of time, rinse, and repeat. Remember, if the acid bath is warm enough (for instance, if you’re doing outside on a summer day), it will become more active, and therefore less controllable. If you find you’re still losing too much detail, try using enamel paint (or even nail polish) to thicken up the mask in parts you find are being destroyed.

    Hope that helps you out in some way. Best of luck!

    -Preston

    August 23, 2010 @ 5:01 PM
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