Etching & fabricating in Bluwolfs shop

[Dalecamino]

Had a great day at Mike Rouxs(Bluwolf) house today. First off, when I got there, Marshall (Mapster) was turning an adapter for my die holder. He was doing so well, I decided not to interrupt :biggrin: Mike Roux finished it, by boring it out, drilling holes, tapping and overall finishing it. Thanks Mike & Marshall. THEN, we all got a piece of aluminum, drew some designs on adhesive vinyl, and stuck them on the aluminum blanks. Dipped them in the sauce, that Mike Redburn(Mredburn) brought, along with his hot plate for heating the water. Thanks Mike! Then washed them off. Thanks to BradG for showing this can be done. Hopefully, the two Mikes & Marshall will post some pictures of theirs soon. Mine is a little rough around the edges(literally) where I got a little too aggressive with the paper towel, after soaking in hot water then when I dipped it in the chloride, it got underneath the vinyl in a couple of places. Great day in my estimation. BTW, my design is a CHEVY BowTie :wink:

 

[mredburn]

Considering we were winging it I thought we did just fine. Mike Roux picked up some sign vinyl and we hand cut out our designs, I brought a couple qts of "Brads Swamp Sauce" for the etching. Marshall and Mike Roux had the best luck with the etching process. Very fun day over all. I even got to borrow Chuck"s supervisory chair he brought for just the occasion

 

[BradG]

Sounding great :biggrin: glad to see ohers giving it a crack. Really looking forward to seeing some pics of your results!

 

[bluwolf]

Yeah, we had a lot of fun just screwing around with it. I did mine a little different. I wrapped the rod with the vinyl then cut it out on the rod. Mine is the one with the little star kinda thing on it. You can see where the razor knife slipped at a few edges. It also etched deeper around the edges, we think because I scored the aluminum while I was cutting it out.

I grabbed a a couple of pictures of Mike's and Marshall attempts too. As you can see from the group photo, it was a highly scientific and organized experiment:biggrin:

Mike

 

[skiprat]

You guys are having way too much fun!!!
The results are looking very positive too.:biggrin:

 

[mredburn]

We all showed up without the first clue as to what we would do for designs. We literally just drew something cut it out and went for it. Mine turned out crappy as my skills with the knife sucked. But the event was to try it and be able to hold it in your hands and really see what happens. Its really instant gratification. Unlike anodizing which takes 2 hours to see if you have an acceptable results this is 5 minutes or less. We did dip the aluminum and vinyl stickers in very hot water. We used duct tape to mask off the top where we held the blank. We duct taped a string on to them for dipping. Marshal just held his whole rod of aluminum in the solution and then cut it off later. We did not heat the solution but we did time the dipping. Mike Roux I believe had 5 minutes on his Marshall and I about 3 minutes on ours. Since I had a lot of "Brads Swamp juice" I gave both Mike Roux and Chuck a quart or so apiece and I will make a new batch for me. That way they could play at their leisure at home.

 

[Dalecamino]

If you will notice, on the table in the group photo, there is a tub of blanks Mike Redburn cast. They are really cool blanks with designs cast in them. I got busy, and forgot to bring one home with me.:redface:

Thank you Mike, for Brads Swamp Juice. I'm going to use up more Aluminum with this stuff. :biggrin:

 

[BradG]

looking great guys and nice creative flair going on with the star there Mike :biggrin:

Next time you play with it, use less "swamp juice" in a container. a standard 500ml drinking glass (PS do not drink) which is obviously deep enough to submerge your pieces.. as there is less etchant it heats itself quickly dueto the reaction and you will find that the 5 minutes you found will be less than a minute. i am guessing that it took quite a while before it started foaming with bubbles? thats because the temp hasnt peaked high enough of the solution yet

 

[mredburn]

It actutually started foaming within seconds of submersion. Remember our ambient temperature is around 29c during the daytime now. We did split it up and Chuck and Mike will have smaller amounts to work with. When the aluminum came out of the etchant it was quite warm.

 

[BradG]

ah well cant see it being an issue then still, looks like youve got it down anyway, and what you all set out to acheive you have done so. now the playing begins for you all :biggrin: