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So I've been trying my hand at some acid etching, it's been fun so far. Here are two of the "better" results I've gotten.
I've been hand painting the enclosures to make the mask. I've tried enamel and acrylic paints, enamel works better I think. It's a little more resilient. I really want to try and get some color into the etches though and I was wondering if anyone was willing to share some tips on that. Do you just use semi-translucent paint?

Also I've been using muriatic acid and H2O2 for the etch itself. I know jwar uses magic acid, does the acid used change the results all that much? I'm assuming it's all removing Al and leaving behind AlO3 in the end. I'd love to hear any thoughts anybod has!

Adding color would be more an issue of filling the recesses with enamel and then sanding flat after it dries. The acid you use is mostly an issue of how fast the reaction occurs.

Yeah I've seen a few people fill in the recesses. The problem there for the way I've been doing this is I'm actually etching the majority of the surface and leaving just a little bit of aluminum, so I might have trouble sanding. It is intense reacting that much aluminum though, so I've been thinking of covering more of the surface. I'll probably give that method a try on my next attempt I think.

cherler wrote:Yeah I've seen a few people fill in the recesses. The problem there for the way I've been doing this is I'm actually etching the majority of the surface and leaving just a little bit of aluminum, so I might have trouble sanding. It is intense reacting that much aluminum though, so I've been thinking of covering more of the surface. I'll probably give that method a try on my next attempt I think.

The style you're doing it usually more about looking weathered and post-apocalyptic. Frequency Central and some others do etches more as a way of adding graphics with different colors without having to do a decal or screen printing that could wear off.

Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

Would love to be able to do this to existing pedal graphics. Do any of you know if that works with muriatic acid?

cherler wrote:Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

jwar has used translucent spray paint.

i do a lot of "negative etching" where the text is raised

https://www.instagram.com/droppingacidpedaletching/

i'm happy to help

JonnyAngle wrote:

cherler wrote:Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

jwar has used translucent spray paint.

i do a lot of "negative etching" where the text is raised

https://www.instagram.com/droppingacidpedaletching/

i'm happy to help

Hnnnnnnnnnng, dat Astronomer <3

That's exactly what i want to be able to do if i dislike the color scheme of a pedal. God damn that's awesome!

JonnyAngle wrote:

cherler wrote:Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

jwar has used translucent spray paint.

i do a lot of "negative etching" where the text is raised

https://www.instagram.com/droppingacidpedaletching/

i'm happy to help

I actually follow you already, your stuff is fantastic. I was hoping you, dminner and/or jwar would show up here haha. So on your PLL etch, you filled in the recessed area with orange green and purple paint?

My girlfriend and I spent a good part of today doing a few etches that I'm really excited about. The Kandinsky inspired one I'm planning on giving the filling idea a go. We actually got the etches pretty deep so I think it should work out well.

My only complaint is I didn't think about knob placement at all this go-round, so we'll see how it goes getting a circuit in there...

cherler wrote:

JonnyAngle wrote:

cherler wrote:Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

jwar has used translucent spray paint.

i do a lot of "negative etching" where the text is raised

https://www.instagram.com/droppingacidpedaletching/

i'm happy to help

I actually follow you already, your stuff is fantastic. I was hoping you, dminner and/or jwar would show up here haha. So on your PLL etch, you filled in the recessed area with orange green and purple paint?

My girlfriend and I spent a good part of today doing a few etches that I'm really excited about. The Kandinsky inspired one I'm planning on giving the filling idea a go. We actually got the etches pretty deep so I think it should work out well.

My only complaint is I didn't think about knob placement at all this go-round, so we'll see how it goes getting a circuit in there...

NSFW: show

Yes. I also painted the black as well.

I use 220 grit and wet sand it. It doesn't take a lot of pressure for the paint to come off.

lokmund wrote:

JonnyAngle wrote:

cherler wrote:Yeah I guess that is the end of the spectrum I'm trying to get to, I was just wondering about color to liven it up a little bit. Do you know if anyone's tried translucent spray paint? I think that might get some good results too, at least worth a shot.

It also does seem pretty reasonable to encircle areas to fill with enamel even with larger coverage etches.

jwar has used translucent spray paint.

i do a lot of "negative etching" where the text is raised

https://www.instagram.com/droppingacidpedaletching/

i'm happy to help

Hnnnnnnnnnng, dat Astronomer <3

That's exactly what i want to be able to do if i dislike the color scheme of a pedal. God damn that's awesome!

Thanks!

JonnyAngle wrote: Yes. I also painted the black as well.

I use 220 grit and wet sand it. It doesn't take a lot of pressure for the paint to come off.

What kind of paint do you use? I thought spray paint might be a little hard to clean, but I didn't really think about how easy sanding the paint off might have been. We tried laying in some enamel from a tube in with brushes and it's not turning out that great

Also I hugely appreciate the help man!

As do I! I would love to be able to do this. I see cherler already knows a bit more than me too (i know absolutely nothing about how to do this)!

cherler wrote:

JonnyAngle wrote: Yes. I also painted the black as well.

I use 220 grit and wet sand it. It doesn't take a lot of pressure for the paint to come off.

What kind of paint do you use? I thought spray paint might be a little hard to clean, but I didn't really think about how easy sanding the paint off might have been. We tried laying in some enamel from a tube in with brushes and it's not turning out that great

Also I hugely appreciate the help man!

i use ace brand enamel spraypaint

JonnyAngle wrote:

cherler wrote:

JonnyAngle wrote: Yes. I also painted the black as well.

I use 220 grit and wet sand it. It doesn't take a lot of pressure for the paint to come off.

What kind of paint do you use? I thought spray paint might be a little hard to clean, but I didn't really think about how easy sanding the paint off might have been. We tried laying in some enamel from a tube in with brushes and it's not turning out that great

Also I hugely appreciate the help man!

i use ace brand enamel spraypaint

Thanks! I'm gonna give this a go tomorrow and see how it goes.