electro etching

 I bought this kit called Etch-O-Matic -  to play with and thought it was interesting -
http://www.martronics-corporation.com/

they advertise:
Permanently Etches Or Marks Metal Tools, Parts Or Equipment With Your Copy, Designs Or Trademarks In Seconds For Less Than A Penny Per Mark!

  you get a lamp unit to expose therr phto sensitive Durafilm - pattern that you print out on a transparency - which means you can use original art -  then use the durafilm  film as the resist and then use the little electric unit and some  electrolyte for whatever metal and you get an etched design on metal

I got the Mark 440

Wellllllll  as I said way over 10 years  and I actually turned the bulb on but I was doing it with the photo sensitive aluminum sheet they have to make serial number labels for work

Martronics sent me a sample of the blue /aluminum - you can get green, red and black as well

and I tested it out and was amazed
I put the company logo on and the address and put up to 8 custom s/n 's on the word template -- this allows me to change the s/n to what I want or make changes to my artwork any time I want -  then I printed on the transparency

I cut the aluminum piece  with scissors - its thin and has a 3m back  - I put the aluminum on the tray, put the transparency  reading side up and put the glass cover on and under the bulb - I turned the UV bulb on and set the timer for 3.5 minutes as per instructions

at end of time turned off the light bulb -  took off the glass and transparency and put the little sheet into warm water and was amazed as the image came up and used a soft sponge to wash away the unexposed lettering (anything black will wash away )


Now they have a unit that will do 8-1/2 x 11 but the one I have at home I can do a 4x4 area  so I did one at a time - will probably get this for work


these above units are what you need to produce the resists - that you can use for etching glass as well - so multi useful - check out the site

Of course I could not find the durafilm I got with the unit so just waiting for that to try this electro etching - t

The electro etch kit is interesting
    this pic they are marking tools
and results look interesting - and they say just about on any metal

they have videos on how to make the film resist, and use the tools - love the old guy that does the demos !

and looks pretty easy to use and is pretty clean - so now its just seeing what kind of mark is the result
I got this and the industrial unit that does a deeper etch as well
so just waiting on some film and I can see how this works