How do you do your etching?

Well, I've been trying various methods of etching lately, and all of them gave less than desirable results. So, what is an easy way to etch, and do pretty intricate work?

BTW, I've been trying out using a Dremel with a very small circular metal head, and just plain old sand-paper.

one way i read about a while back was to cut your design with a sharp knife then use a dremel with a pointed bur. The knife cut helps keep the lines sharper

Yeah, that's what I read too, but I have some pretty fine details, and the cutting was pretty hard with an exacto knife. I was trying just Dremelling with the picture behind the plexi and Dremelling the black areas (what I want etched) but I didn't know if I would get it weird shaped, like if I looked at it at an angle one way and a different angle the other. But it worked better than cutting out the design...

I did that:

Once you have decided what you want in the plexy, print it. As you going to etch the draw inside the window, print the draw "mirrored".

Don't remove the protective paper form the plexy and fix your desing with tape to the plexy.

Cut carefuly with a cutter or xacto knive the areas to etch and remove the paper pieces. I protected the others areas with tape.

In the following pics, the first steps of etching. To reach that point, i "painted" carefully the area to etch with the back of the cutter. As it was a marker. First in one direction and the in the other until you get the desired level of opacity.

For the letters i only used the cutter for the details, the main work was did with a dremel bit.

To finish the work, put some lights (in the side of the plexy, for example) to light up your desing.

The sand paper / Frost:

(sorry i don't have pics of this process)

The work is similar. But the desing have to be bigger.

You have to protect the "non-frosteable" areas better and cut the others with a cutter. Then sand with a light sandpaper. Apply several sanding until you get the desired frost level. Don't go for a one-pass sanding.

A rough sandpaper will scratch the plexy, so use a fine grain instead.

I hope it help you a little.

hmm i would also like to know how to etch (and well)

got a dremel, all kinds of sandpaper, sanding disks, bur stuff, etc

i should etch something onto ArgDawn's window.

Kumo, that's a really great little tutorial. Thanks very much, i'm thinking this should get stickied for a short while, see what the other mods think-it's a common question and your pics are nice. Good work.

-Dave

For nothing. Thank you for the comments.

I must have a pic of a sanded window anywhere. I'll post if i find it.

Awesome, thanks for the help! I'll try that pretty soon, as I have to cut a new window, since I messed my other one trying the etch.


Edit: Kumo, what Dremel bit did you use?

I did it with bits of those kind

The round one is vey useful for characters.

Some pics of a sanded /etched window i did some time ago:

The rays are made by the sand method and the characters with the dremel.

Sorry, i could post the pics a little bigger, but not better. Only i have these.

Awesome, thanks man!

I suppose I will post a picture of my second attempt.

Can you guess what it is?

i had been concidering some etching. was thinking that if you had the grout remover attachment for your dreml that you could ajust the hight and maybe use the end mill bit so that your depth would always be consistant. i dont know if that has an effect on the acctual image once its lit up though. any thoughts?

Oh very nice, the gravity gun. Looks well done.

Thanks, it took me quite a while, and I'm still not quite happy with it yet, so I'm going to keep cleaning it up and I'll post more pictures when I'm sure it's done.

ive used a very strange method to etch. it hasnt been for any mods, but just to see what happens.

what i do follows a tiny bit of kumo's prep stage... print out a "mirrored" picture. beyond that its a little different.

once i have the picture printed, i cut out any spaces that will end up etched, and then tape it to the plexi. then i spray a thin coat of paint on and let it dry. then i remove the paper and leave it for another day just to make good and sure that everything is dried real well. then i take a razor or another little scraper tool i have (i might take a picture if you guys want me to) and i get a large ruler (like one of those big 5 foot long ones used for woodwork).

here comes the fun part. i take the ruler and line it up at the top of the etching (the very top part). i make a straight scratch following the ruler, making sure only to scratch the painted part. i make it light too because the scraper can dig in real far, and you dont need to take out of lot of material to get a frosted look. i then move the ruler down just a tiny bit, and scratch another line in where there is any paint. i keep scratching and moving down until ive gotten to the very bottom, and theres no more to do.

this method works well for me, and if its done cleanly, it almost makes it look like the image has been crystalized into the plexi.

you can also double this up and do both horizontal and vertical lines, to get that extra bit of definition and accuracy. you can play with the depth too.... as in maybe making the scratches deeper as they get closer to the center of the etching. this can give sort of a 3D look.

Doesn't your method sound sort of like how a CNC machines work?

Would it be too much to ask for you to post some pics? I would love to visually see it.

unfortunately it would be a wee bit too much to get some pictures of the actual product. they were test panels and i hacked them to bits while discovering the faults of dremel tools. i have one little bit left thats too small to give a good effect. it probably wouldnt even turn out in a picture.

ill see if i can find another piece of plexi somewhere and give it another shot though. it does look very good if you do it right.

I would personally use a swiveling exacto knife (idk where the heck I got it...). It does give you better curves and lines.

I do my etching like dis... Yes, print out what you want to etch, mirrored and taped to the outside of plexi so the etch is on the inside of case window.

Queen Alien Etch - My Master Piece- More like a tattoo huh - done with a engraver - Wish I took a better pic, its actually perfect - About 3 hours with breaks

Etch For Mom - gotta luv er - done with engraver and roto zip - about an hour

For Chits n giggles - done with engraver, roto zip using different bits - oh 3 er 4

My Old PC - done with rotozip large bit - less than an hour

HERES THE TRICK, Unless your a tattoo artist (I Was) this will be hard. Holding a regular engraver is easy if you can follow the lines. Holding a 36000 Rpm Roto zip is like holding a Gyrating Football - Good luck you now have my secrets....But, There is an easier way muah huh huh huh.......Priceless

wow dude those are absolutly awesome, have you tried etching onto metal? what kind of speeds do you recommend using on a rotary tool with etching bits? (on plex)

Here's an etching (my first!) I did last night on 1/4" plexi. The bottom half was done with a dremel (no flex shaft.. hand = ow), and the top half (and all the details) were done with an engraver.

http://static.flickr.com/144/319865755_d6c8e82775_d.jpg

Sorry about the crap quality.. it's hard to take a good picture of something transparent. :P

Anyways, this took about 2.5 hrs total, and the image is 5"w x 7" tall.

sweet merciful crap. Lukifer, thats amazing dude. I might give this a try on some scrap plexi I have laying around because it just looks like fun.

I tried it with diamond bur rounded tips, good for writing.

I think I might go practice a bit more soon, but with pointy tips on scratch plexi before I go to work on Cavalier's window.

Damn Lukinfer!!! That's pretty amazing and even more so that it only t00 a couple of hours!!! +rep

Thanks again, I've got some more info regarding my etching on my project. Clicky clicky my sig! :D

Here is an etching tutorial i found online.
Ive seen this guys work on case mods he is very good.
http://www.themodnation.com/absolute...r.asp?a=35&z=5

I tried etching for the first time, tell me what you think. For these I used the $20 dollar dremel engraver, and it worked very well.

This one took about 3 hours.

This one took 4.5 hours.

I think they turned out nice for my first time. Comments?

Damn fine work!

That dragon looks like the one on my arm. Well kinda.
Looks Great +Rep

wow nice work you used the first tool on here http://www.mytoolstore.com/dremel/misctols.html right ?

yes, that was the tool I used.

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Here is a new etching i did tonight, to try something different. For this, I sprayed the plexi with some black paint I had laying around, and then etched the paint off. I really like the look this gives.

Wow. . That Looks really good!

How did you come up with that pattern?

You should do a tutorial! If you do them often take some pics..

ishamael56

Awesome work. You got me thinkin I need to do some etching. Those dragons are top notch.

Eclecticos, I find things to etch just by looking around on the web. Google and deviant art are good places to start. All these etchings were meant to be tattoos. I find the tattoo designs are easy to etch and produce good looking results.

I'll post up more etchings when I do them. thanks for your support!

I found this etching engraver thing at a yardsale:

Works Preddy good. Tried it out on Aluminum and Plexi.
I was afraid to pick it up at first. . LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eclecticos

I found this etching engraver thing at a yardsale:

Works Preddy good. Tried it out on Aluminum and Plexi.
I was afraid to pick it up at first. . LOL

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that reminds me of those travel urine containers...

does it do fine work or just general stuff?

I Just did this on aluminum.
Excuse me Al. .uh. mini. . um. . :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eclecticos

I found this etching engraver thing at a yardsale:

Works Preddy good. Tried it out on Aluminum and Plexi.
I was afraid to pick it up at first. . LOL

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My dad has that same etcher!

I remember screwing around with it a bit when I was a kid, didn't know what it was used for at the time.