Nostradoomus
Well-known member
Awhile back I bought a little Cricut Joy machine with the intention of using it as an etch resist cutter. It works pretty well for simple designs, won’t cut anything complex but that’s fine for most builds.
Step 1 is to design and cut your vinyl. If anyone remembers earlier my old band mate passed and I’m using the same design as the tribute pedal I made for him. It’s a simple but effective design for vinyl cutting. I didnt take pictures of this step.
Step 2 is the most irritating part...weeding the vinyl. This is laborious.
Next up is laying it out and getting your clear transfer paper out. Peel that off and lay it on your enclosure. Do not lay it down without being sure it is lined up...when it’s stuck it’s stuck!
Next I tape up the edges so no stray water gets anywhere I don’t want it.
Now it’s time to hook up the power supply. Anode gets clipped to the enclosure, cathode is clipped to a Q-tip or piece of paper towel soaked in salty water. I run it at 25v, 5 amps.
Now it’s zappin time! You have to keep your q-tip/paper towel wet as the salt in the water is your electrode. I use a q-tip for the small text so water doesnt spill down the edge.
Paper towel for the middle/big spots.
You can skip all this dabbing stuff and just dunk the whole thing in water (tape the bare anode wire to the enclosure along with all metal you don’t want etched, clip a scrap piece of aluminum to the cathode and dunk that too on the other side of the tub of water)
After 30-40 minutes of dabbing (that’s why I’d suggest the submersion method, you can leave it to do it’s thing...) you should have a pretty good etch.
It’s hardly necessary to paint but I usually do anyway. I dab some black paint into the etch and then use a plastic scraper to clean it up, takes no time and is way easier than sanding spray paint off the whole top of the box.
That’s about it.
Step 1 is to design and cut your vinyl. If anyone remembers earlier my old band mate passed and I’m using the same design as the tribute pedal I made for him. It’s a simple but effective design for vinyl cutting. I didnt take pictures of this step.
Step 2 is the most irritating part...weeding the vinyl. This is laborious.
Next up is laying it out and getting your clear transfer paper out. Peel that off and lay it on your enclosure. Do not lay it down without being sure it is lined up...when it’s stuck it’s stuck!
Next I tape up the edges so no stray water gets anywhere I don’t want it.
Now it’s time to hook up the power supply. Anode gets clipped to the enclosure, cathode is clipped to a Q-tip or piece of paper towel soaked in salty water. I run it at 25v, 5 amps.
Now it’s zappin time! You have to keep your q-tip/paper towel wet as the salt in the water is your electrode. I use a q-tip for the small text so water doesnt spill down the edge.
Paper towel for the middle/big spots.
You can skip all this dabbing stuff and just dunk the whole thing in water (tape the bare anode wire to the enclosure along with all metal you don’t want etched, clip a scrap piece of aluminum to the cathode and dunk that too on the other side of the tub of water)
After 30-40 minutes of dabbing (that’s why I’d suggest the submersion method, you can leave it to do it’s thing...) you should have a pretty good etch.
It’s hardly necessary to paint but I usually do anyway. I dab some black paint into the etch and then use a plastic scraper to clean it up, takes no time and is way easier than sanding spray paint off the whole top of the box.
That’s about it.
