Electro-etching Metal Using a Stick On Label

**schuylergrace** · Jul 23, 2021, 02:01 AM

This is a piece of hot rolled mild steel plate I electro-etched to about 1/16" depth. I made a stencil from heavy duty, self adhesive vinyl, attached an electrode to the back of the blank, attached the stencil, and sealed the rest of the blank, except the lettering, to confine the etch to just the letterforms. Instead of etching it with a swab, the entire blank was submerged in a tub of saturated brine, along with a separate electrode made from another piece of steel. If I'm not mistaken, the etch took about 30 minutes, but I don't have the details in front of me (time, voltage, polarity, and current). It was easy enough that this was just my first attempt after running a test piece, and it turned out nicely. When I get around to it, I want to try it on designs with both broader etched areas, as well as finer details.

Electro-etching Metal Using a Stick On Label-plaque-sample-fontin.jpg

**rgsparber** · Jul 23, 2021, 07:29 PM

How did you cut the stencil?

Rick

**schuylergrace** · Jul 23, 2021, 11:38 PM

Originally Posted by rgsparber

How did you cut the stencil?

Rick

I used a Cricut Maker machine. I believe I did the original layout in Adobe Illustrator, so I'd have more tools to get it just right (the typeface is Fontin). Getting this deep of an etch was right at the limits of what the vinyl adhesive would hold up to, but the test piece had a couple of spots where the vinyl separated enough to let the blank etch underneath. That was mostly because I wasn't perfectly careful about getting it well-adhered to the blank and making sure there were no air bubbles under the vinyl, especially at the edges.