I haven't posted in a while because after Christmas cards (another post!) I took a break...I was working with resin a lot before that and it was too cold in my house to use it. I've been doing other things, like some wire wrapping but haven't made much other wise. Then in March I had some health issues and so things are still not back to the way they were...but I am slowly getting better and getting back to making stuff. Mostly wire wrapping cabs I already made, but wanted to do some more etching too...
So I started etching copper sheeting and thought I'd share the results again. You can read about my previous experiences (with hydrogen peroxide, salt and vinegar, even!) on a couple of previous posts...links to them should be on the right side of this page, at least on a computer! I've tried all the different ways I know of, now, except using PnP paper...which, apparently, is the only way you can get a good etch on copper with saltwater and electricity! Although mine wasn't entirely a waste of time! You be the judge!
If you've followed this blog, you know I am a relative newbie to etching, so I decided to try some techniques from other blogs. The first one was this Insructable, where they explained how to use a soft roller and a baggie - and which only uses about an ounce of ferric chloride for your etching project! Since I had only gotten two uses from my last $13 bottle of it, I decided to give it a try and was very pleased with the results. It is not a DEEP etch but was really nice. I will definitely get a lot more uses out of the etching solution this way! (Sidenote: Found a great way to dispose of the old solution quickly: I put some scrap aluminum sheet (leftover from my other projects, sheet metal from Home Depot, 10 5"x7" sheets for less than $3) in the container with the used solution and it solidified overnight! I would still take it to a disposal site but it is much easier to transport!)
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| Here are my supplies...baggies, foam paint roller, ferric chloride, copper...The two sheets on the left are thinner metal than the one on the right. Somewhere is the lemonade Kool-aid I used to make my Edinburgh etch..couldn't find citric acid. :) |
I have learned from other blogs that it is a good idea to stamp your images and let them dry for over 24 hours, so I did that with the Stazon and a plain rubber stamp. I was worried about rubbing off the ink with the rolling action but it held up pretty well.,.although it came off very easily when I was done! I also used stickers and they held up well, too, surprisingly. The directions I followed on that Instructable are actually in the comments, not the main post! The main post was more about circuit boards but the post I used was by Mr. MM, about halfway down in the comments, the Edinburgh etch method. I did not have a soft rubber brayer but remembered my foam paint roller and used that to press the solution over the metal. It took about 45 mins total, probably half the normal time I did it last time I tried etching. The thinner metal took less time.
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| Freshly etched, no patina yet. These are the two thinner sheets. |
What I did was double bag the pre-stamped metal sheet in heavy duty baggies (and I did get a leak, so do it over newspaper or plastic) with some Edinburgh etch solution and about an ounce of ferric chloride. Both sides of the metal were to be etched so I flipped it several times and rolled both sides. One side had rubber stamps and one side had stickers. I used detailed peel-off stickers and they worked quite well. They didn't come off, at least, even with all the rolling!
I rolled them for about 45 minutes and then took them out.
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| You can see the stickers on this one. This one is the thicker metal. Yes, I got two uses out of the amount in the bag! |
Below, you can see them patina'd. The one on the left was taken out about five minutes before the other one (I did them together as they both fit in the bag.) I do see a tiny difference. These were the thinner sheets I used to be able to get...I don't think Michael's sells these anymore. The thicker ones are from Hobby Lobby. The thinner ones took about 30 minutes...there was only one side to etch on these, though.
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| After patina. You can tell it's a little less deep than my previous experiments. But very smooth etch! |
Then I decided I wanted to try electrolytic etching. I basically used directions from this blog, but used my stamped copper with the Stazon and my own power supply. Not a great idea with the Stayzon, although it DID work...barely. PnP would be MUCH better! Or a paint pen...although I wanted to use my stamp. There is some discussion on the blog about what to do with the used solution; I'll get to my experience with that at the end....
A while back I purchased this car DC adapter and recently saw it in my garage and wondered if I could use it for electrolytic etching since you can adjust the voltage. I decided to give it a try after reading a few blogs about using similar items, although I couldn't find out about this specific one. I cut off the end, split the wire and used gator clips with screws to attach the stripped wire ends to.
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| What a deal I got on this, huh! But you know it's old...they're talking about cd players! |
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| As you can see, you can easily adjust the voltage, which was one reason I decided to try this. |
After I prepared my DC adapter, I had to go find my AC adapter to plug it into so I could use it in the house. Lol! I got some Kosher salt and distilled water and mixed it till the salt wouldn't melt anymore, got some heavy duty copper wire to hang my metal from and hung the stamped sheet directly across from some scrap sheet in a large plastic container, then I clipped my alligator clips to the copper wires. I looked online to see which side of the plug's split wire was the hot side and read that the side with the ridge was hot...but it was backwards once I plugged it all in...since I got bubbles on the side I was trying to etch! I think the Stazon would have lasted longer if I hadn't done that....I switched the clips and all was well. I sure held my breath when I plugged it in, though! :D
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| I set the adapter for 3 volts but I think I'll go to 4.5 next time. You can see the screwed on alligator clips attached to the wire holding up the copper sheeting in the container. I cut one wire on the adapter shorter so they will never touch each other accidentally. |
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| Bubbles.....on the wrong side! There goes my Stazon...poo. I caught it pretty fast though, and switched the clips... |
Here are the results. Not too bad, actually...! The first side pictured below is the one that had the peel off stickers. The top part in the picture was done with a stamp and Stazon. (You can see what this looks like before I etched it in the last picture on this post.) The second sticker on the second row fell off, so it wasn't etched well, but the rest held up long enough to etch satisfactorily. I may try to cut this into bracelets.
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| This is the second side, that was Stazon and stamp only. It isn't bad, although most of the stamping wore off prematurely. This is really one of my favorite stamps! |
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| Here's the water after a couple of days of settling. (I poured off the clear water before I took this photo.) LOTS of etched copper and excess salt! I would love to know if you could use this to electroplate with? |
On the first blog, some one in the comments mentioned being able to put steel wool in the water and the steel would chemically attract the copper remnants. It worked a little but there was a LOT of copper in there. Maybe if I had added more steel wool,,,but I didn't have time for that! You can see one of the stickers that floated off...they really didn't work well with this electric method.
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| Here's what accumulated on the steel wool. It did seem to attract some...or maybe the orange was rust? I don't know.... |
What I ended up doing was pouring it through a coffee filter with a strainer and I'll reuse the still salty water. I'll probably hold onto the filtered out copper and see if i can melt it or use it some other way. Next on the agenda (and shopping list) is some PnP paper and a laminator to attach the PnP to the metal with. There seems to be some good information here about this!
Thanks for looking and for being so patient! I will be back faster next time. :)
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| Here's a look at the sheets I etched, pre-etching, and where that scrap copper came from in the photos above...now, what to do with these domed disks? :) |
Later!
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