Ed McDonnell
Member
Following on to my Adventures in Etching thread, here's where I stand at the moment.
I decided to use photosensitive film to create the etching mask.
I spent a day creating an incredibly intricate design and then decided something simpler was probably a better bet for a first attempt. So, another day to create a simpler, but still suitably challenging design with all the elements efficiently laid out and connected to allow for etching without losing any parts in the bath.
I printed my artwork out on inkjet film. Next I adhered the photo film to the brass (2" x 2" x 0.005"). The artwork on the inkjet film went on top of the photo film (which was adhered to the brass) and the whole package was set out in the sun until it turned what I judged to be a suitable color of blue (about a minute in 2:00pm sun).
Next the exposed brass / photo film combo went into a sodium hydroxide solution to dissolve the unhardened unexposed parts of the mask (what shows brass in the pictures).
The part on the left was my very first attempt. It came out pretty good. I must have gotten overconfident with the second part on the right because the mask is missing in places where it shouldn't be missing in the lower right. Not sure if I didn't get the brass clean enough, or didn't give the film enough sunlight (it was about a half hour later when I did this one) or any one of a dozen other things I might have done not quite right.
I decided to put the actual etching on hold until I decide whether I want to try and patch up the mask on the piece on the right with some paint or something (using my tiny 2 hair brush) or whether I'll strip the mask and start over.
For someone experienced with circuit board production, this whole process would probably be a walk in the park. For me, it seems messy, fussy and complicated. I'm sitting here thinking that spraying a coat of paint on the brass and using my cnc to mill off the paint to create an etching mask may be a whole lot better approach. But I'll give photo etching one more attempt before giving up on it.
As to what you are looking at in the pictures. After etching, everything brass would be gone, leaving only the blue lines. The blue photo mask would be stripped off revealing the brass detail preserved underneath. That's the plan anyway.
If you are familiar with cloisonne, you can probably guess how this might be incorporated into a pen design. At this point I'm only prepared to do Nouveax Cloisonne which involves the use of colored resins instead of vitreous enamels.
Stay tuned for breaking developments.....
Ed
I decided to use photosensitive film to create the etching mask.
I spent a day creating an incredibly intricate design and then decided something simpler was probably a better bet for a first attempt. So, another day to create a simpler, but still suitably challenging design with all the elements efficiently laid out and connected to allow for etching without losing any parts in the bath.
I printed my artwork out on inkjet film. Next I adhered the photo film to the brass (2" x 2" x 0.005"). The artwork on the inkjet film went on top of the photo film (which was adhered to the brass) and the whole package was set out in the sun until it turned what I judged to be a suitable color of blue (about a minute in 2:00pm sun).
Next the exposed brass / photo film combo went into a sodium hydroxide solution to dissolve the unhardened unexposed parts of the mask (what shows brass in the pictures).
The part on the left was my very first attempt. It came out pretty good. I must have gotten overconfident with the second part on the right because the mask is missing in places where it shouldn't be missing in the lower right. Not sure if I didn't get the brass clean enough, or didn't give the film enough sunlight (it was about a half hour later when I did this one) or any one of a dozen other things I might have done not quite right.
I decided to put the actual etching on hold until I decide whether I want to try and patch up the mask on the piece on the right with some paint or something (using my tiny 2 hair brush) or whether I'll strip the mask and start over.
For someone experienced with circuit board production, this whole process would probably be a walk in the park. For me, it seems messy, fussy and complicated. I'm sitting here thinking that spraying a coat of paint on the brass and using my cnc to mill off the paint to create an etching mask may be a whole lot better approach. But I'll give photo etching one more attempt before giving up on it.
As to what you are looking at in the pictures. After etching, everything brass would be gone, leaving only the blue lines. The blue photo mask would be stripped off revealing the brass detail preserved underneath. That's the plan anyway.
If you are familiar with cloisonne, you can probably guess how this might be incorporated into a pen design. At this point I'm only prepared to do Nouveax Cloisonne which involves the use of colored resins instead of vitreous enamels.
Stay tuned for breaking developments.....
Ed
