Well I got to do my very first etching the other day. It went fairly well, there are few things to work on, but it was a great first effort. I wont go into too much detail on the process, as I want to be able to get all the steps 100% right first.
The main thing that went wrong in this test was that the top pattern moved by about 0.5 mm to 1mm in the exposure process, which lead to the holes not being perfect. I felt I got the etching time right, however I do need to build an improved etching tank. I will need to make one that will be able to take A4 size brass sheets. I’ve added some photos below of what went on. You can see in the final shots of the brass how the topside is not right, but is something that I can work on. I used .25mm brass sheet in this test.
I hope I will be able to do a more in depth blog on the whole etching process soon.
You're right that getting accurate measurements beforehand is important. Measure twice -- cut once, as most people would like to quote. It's fortunate that this was somewhat just a practice etch, so the pattern that was moved by 0.5 to 1mm would be charged to experience. I hope your next etches would turn out great, and they you can share to us a full-blown blog on how you came up with them!
ReplyDeleteBrandi Bradley @ Rotax Metals