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View Full Version : Two-sided etching on brass (was Corel alignment question)



Richard Rumancik
03-18-2011, 10:20 PM
Earlier this month Chuck Stone posted a question as to how he could get better alignment with his front and back patterns on brass.

There were some suggestions made but I think there was a bit of confusion as to his technique.

I have prepared a bit of an instruction for anyone who wants to try 2-sided etching similar to what Chuck was doing. Chuck, you are already doing most of what I have written but I wrote this up as I have a personal interest in etching and maybe others will try it. (Then we can all learn from each other.) However, I think you should consider the method I have shown for registering the two sides. I am suggesting to use holes rather than boundary lines like you were doing. I think it is possible to get good results.

In the instruction, I tried to show that the shape of the brass workpiece and the polyester envelope are both arbitrary. There seemed to be confusion about this. Also I have showed a very non-symetrical logo. Some people seemed to think that the item has to be symmetrical to work.

Dee suggested using holes and pins. That is really the best method but takes more work and some fixturing. I have been working on such a method for making gobos.

If anybody sees any errors in the file or instruction or has ideas for improvement please let me know. And if you actually try etching please post and let us know your results.

I did not discuss etching chemicals. There are various options and it is a separate topic.

Chuck Stone
03-19-2011, 2:30 PM
i"m going to play with this some ..
Thanks!

Richard Rumancik
03-19-2011, 3:16 PM
Hope it helps. I'm hoping that more members will get into etching - then we'll have a bigger pool of contributors to the subject.

Chuck Stone
03-19-2011, 5:56 PM
I managed to do someone's logo (actually a cartoon character .. hairline ) that
was only .6" high, maybe .5" wide. Wasn't sure it was going to work, but I pressed
it into an arc and glued it into a pen barrel. Looks pretty cool. Some of the parts are
wire thin.. 10-12 thousandths wide. I had my fingers crossed for that one!