Etching Finished - Finally

The brass etching has been the bane of my existence the last week or so (and my girlfriend was becoming concerned I was delving in to the mindset of the obsessed mad-scientist). It took me six tries (and four kinds of paper) to simply get the toner on the brass and three tries to etch the damn thing. In the process, I scaled down the number of pieces to the foot plates and the name plate.

But, I did finish it with moderate results. My only question now is whether I hand-paint the negative back, or use a dremel to deepen the cuts. The etch was successful, but not quite deep enough to spray and sand as most people recommend. I think I may try hand painting tonight and see what I get, since Acrylic can easily be washed off.

As for the process...here's the toner successfully transferred on to the brass. I heated 3-4 inches at a time with the iron on the hottest setting with my cellphone timing 5 minutes. Then I would move the iron and rub the revealed section until no air bubbles were left. Put in a movie for this part.

Next, I made a tank with about 7 gallons of water with 1 whole container of salt. The pieces were dunked and separated by about 3/4" of wood. The positive charge was attached to the piece to be etched and the negative to the other.

Here's about 1 hour in. Crazy looking, huh? This nasty stuff is basically rust from the salt water. I really wanted to try doing a non-toxic (or less toxic) etch without copper sulfate. It was bubbling and fizzing like crazy. Fingers crossed here.

Here's the piece with the toner still on and the etch finished after about 2 hours. What's cool is that the other piece with the negative charge essentially became copper-plated, which I an use for something else later, I guess. The next step is to clean off the toner with carb cleaner.

Finally, the brass is revealed! Once the black paint/primer is added back in to the negative spaces the design will really pop. It's not as clean as some of the awesome etching I've seen online, but screw it, I've spent enough time on this part and there's much more to be done!

Lastly, my tips for etching, for what they're worth:

• Keep it small, under 6x6. Next time if I do something large I'll break it in to pieces. I think the charge is just too dissipated and weak over a large area.
  
• Use magazine paper (semi gloss pages from Wired or something) for the transfer
• Get an iron with no auto-temperature control safety features. You want it maximum heat all the time.
• Use copper sulfate, it will give you a much deeper etch, combined with the smaller size (I think)