December 27th, 2009
Up until now, I’ve merely walked you through the planning and preparation stages involved with etching. Today, I’ll show you how it all pays off.
If you haven’t read through the first two parts of this series yet, I highly suggest you go back and do so:
At this point you should have your enclosure ready,the graphic in place, and all spots touched-up- so that only what you want to be etched will be.
Click to enlarge
by Preston | Posted in
TUTORIALS |
2 Comments » | Tags:
etching, tutorial
December 24th, 2009
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:
- 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.
by Preston | Posted in
TUTORIALS |
1 Comment » | Tags:
etching, tutorial
December 23rd, 2009
Welcome to the first lesson in etching 101: Sanding & Masking. This first step is all about the prep work.
The key to a good etch is a well-prepared surface, and the only way to get one is to use a fair amount of elbow grease; accept no substitutes. To get the enclosure ready, you’ll need the following:
- Sandpaper, ranging from coarse to very fine- I like using 80, 320 and 600.
- Sanding block- This will save your fingers and hands from some pretty painful cramping.
- Heavy Latex gloves- For wet sanding.
- Steel Wool #00- Used for the final polish.
- Economy flat black spray paint- Go cheap.
by Preston | Posted in
TUTORIALS |
3 Comments » | Tags:
etching, tutorial
December 22nd, 2009
As more enclosure work comes my way, I’m realizing my process has become more streamlined and (almost) fool-proof. I now understand how to more easily get from A to B, and know the pitfalls to avoid along the way. So when a few people approached me asking me to explain how I etch, I decided it would be best just to document some of my work as it progresses.
This first tutorial will be a broad example of the etching process, but in the future I plan on doing a series of how-tos that go further in depth.
For now, I’m just going to show you how to get a graphic etched into an enclosure:
