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

UV Exposure UnitI 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

2 comments:

  1. I am anxious to see how all your new "toys" work, as well.

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  2. Thanks a lot for sharing this blog with us!
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