Guide to Acrylic Etching

**Grez** · 08-23-2007, 12:49 PM

Time for the new guy to start his first worklog!

Good luck, man!

ojoar · 11-14-2007, 07:01 AM

hey u just give me a good idea for my new casing,
i bet u must spend hours doing those drawing but they r really good :)

Temp.Asdf.Asdf · 04-11-2008, 10:25 AM

My question is, you discussed coloring the etching ... How do you do that?
I've been digging through the site but haven't come across it, this just may be poor searching on my part ... Any help would be great

The rest of the post is just about my startup into this...
I found this site through google and this post was the 1st link!!! "acrylic etching"
Very helpfull post for getting me started .. Read it then did it

I went out last night and picked up an etching dremel and ran a couple test passes last night ... turned out pretty well.. I'll get a pick up in a couple of days ...

Next step building a light table
I picked up an open item home depot two circular bulb floresent fixture (roughly a 18" and 13" circle bulbs) and some 1x8 pine board to build a 22" x 22" box to box in the fixture...
Then I'm going to top it with some left over 1/8" acrylic that I used for the practice etching and cover it with a white paper sheet or use the paper with the drawing on it to cover the top so I don't blind myself...
All I need now is a wall plug and electrical cable to wire it up so I can plug it in

Total cost is going to be about 30 bucks to make the light table, 22 bucks for the etcher (tax included) ... The fixture was roughly $new and the bulbs were $10 bucks ... but looking for open item returns can save some $

$55 to get a working light table and etcher to make some cool stuff... priceless

here's a pic of the sketch that I etched (it's a gif so the thumbnail doesn't seem to show but it opened in the preview post)

Temp.Asdf.Asdf · 04-11-2008, 02:45 PM

shot the pics during lunch on the back of a truck ...

Here are my 1st attempts at etching

On the 1st pic, the etch on the left is my first attempt
Middle the second go round
The sketch on the right was reversed before I started so the etching turned out the correct way, and the sketch is of a Bee all juiced up ...

The solo shot is of my second attempt

I need some practice to get use to the buzz of the gun, but I think after a dozen or so more I should get pretty good...

Lit up under red LED's it looks pretty cool at least in my opinion
I'm going to scale up the sketch and do a large one this weekend

Thanks again for all of the replys throughout this post ...

**WhiteBoy88** · 04-11-2008, 03:02 PM

For coloring... try highlighters

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Temp.Asdf.Asdf · 04-16-2008, 01:58 PM

Once I've finished my 3rd attempt I'm going to try the highlighters, food coloring dye, and model testers paint
I have already removed the backing on the current project, but I'm going to try airbrushing the etchings on the next one with the plastic backing still on the sheet

Tip on creating a light source to help out while etching, NO Shadows from any angle!!!
I have this in my 1st attempt post

I played with setting a light under the drawing and the acrylic on top and didn't get any help trying to see the lines on the etches ...
Overheads just made shadows and required me to work in directions that didn't create shadowing over sections that I hadn't etched, which quickly got on my nerves. Stopped at wally world during lunch and picked up a $8.88 fluorescent bulb A couple shots of just the light shining directly into the top edge, in the pics a piece of paper is used as a ghetto block to keep the light out of my eyes ...
the camera is bringing out all of the marks on the plastic cover sheet

After I got home I had some blue electrical tape and taped off the top and bottom of the bulb leaving roughly a 1/8" gap. It gives a perfect white lightup over the paper streaming through the acrylic. When I want to see a finished product glow I just set the sheet on top of the blue tape... In person it's clearer and the etch lines pop out over the drawing..

Happy etching everyone

exotiquerobert · 06-24-2008, 11:22 AM

Very helpful forum!!! Desperate for help regarding using LEDs lights around my artwork! Want to locate a string of single-bulb LEDS (sorta like a string of Xmas tree lights). I have a way to power it (the light string) with either batteries or direct current. Please group help point me to WHERE CAN I LOCATE these LEDs!!

thanks, exotiquerobert