/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Okay, one last photo of the etch depth of the second batch.

And here's the results. This is using the same batch of ferric chloride (aka PCB enchant) as last time. The etch time was 60 minutes but it seems not quite as deep; the enchant is probably getting worn out. That's all for this time. Hopefully I can get a photo of a finished pin before the thread 404s.

Here's the printed vinyl. To print it, I printed out the image on regular paper, stuck the adhesive backed vinyl over the image, and then ran the same paper through the printer again.

Better than paper, but nowhere near as good as vinyl.

Printed out and ready to be ironed on.

I finally got some time to finish the second batch, which is the last. I decided to try another transfer medium I had read about - copier transparencies.

>>549421
Thanks, it was.

That was the extent of my work on it. I handed it off to the club with a bag of pic related (+ clutches) to be either glued or soldered to the back.

Here they are, all polished, deburred, edges rounded and ready for their pin backing.

If you let go, they turn into very sharp projectiles.

Did I mention they're sharp? Because they're sharp as shit like this.

The cut lapel pins. They're exactly 1 inch by 1 inch by 0.051" (1.30mm).

After several failed attempts to cut them, I finally settled on a jig saw with a 32 teeth per inch fine metal blade. I had to outsource the actual sawing to a carpenter friend with a steady hand. We went through 4 saw blades before finishing the plate.

>>549408
Thanks.

Total etch time was approximately 40 minutes. The acid tub was inside a larger tub of shallow hot water to speed up the reaction. A box fan was placed against the tub to vibrate the solution and to blow away the fumes. The etch depth was just about perfect.

This is what's left after all the toner is removed.

Take it out of the bath and clean the toner off with acetone.

You get this stuff from radio shack for like 15 bucks. Dump it into a plastic container and it will slowly eat away at whatever metal is dunked into it. It's weak enough that it can't eat through metal covered by toner, or even magic marker.

into the acid bath it goes

Much better. Time to touch it up with a marker.

mmmm dat hot vinyl smell

Several days and an amazon order later, the new super substrate arrives - stick on vinyl!

After several tries on the printer, pic related is the result.

Cleaned with acetone and polished.

FAIL!