Etched enclosures

[deadastronaut]

Love that mayan calendar...cool.

[thomasha]

it's for my solstice reverb build,
so i thought the calendar would be a nice hint...

[snowman910]

Hello all,

I'm doing my first caustic soda etched enclosure, and printed on laser printer to glossy paper (not photographic and not magazine), ironed per http://diy-guitar-effects.tumblr.com/etching and after well cooled, peeled, and the printed side of the paper remains stuck by the toner to the box, a thin white layer obscuring the toner mask.  I am afraid anything I do to remove the remaining paper will also remove toner, and am wondering whether the caustic soda will eat away the paper and I should just proceed with taping off the edges and sides of the enclosure and the etching of the enclosure, or whether I need to use something else to remove the paper residue.  I did peel an intact sheet of paper from the enclosure, but not the glossy surface of the paper to which the toner was adhered.

Looking to next time, should I not let the enclosure cool fully, to avoid this?

snowman910

[psychedelicfish]

Some people soak the enclosure in water after ironing on the toner to help remove the paper. I've only really done a few toner transfers, but after a few minutes soaking in warm water you should be able to rub off the remaining paper with your fingers. If the toner is well stuck on, you can be fairly vigorous with the rubbing before you have to worry about the toner flaking off.

[snowman910]

Thanks, Psychedelic Fish, I'll use this approach tomorrow. 

[vigilante397]

I second the wise words of psychedelic fish. I have done many a toner transfer in my day (though I don't pretend by any stretch of imagination to be an expert), and while I never had such problems with things like PNP blue I recently made the switch to magazine paper, and have found that soaking in warm water definitely does the trick.

[lars-musik]

This is my first etch with the toner transfer method  and FeCL₃ (40%) as etchant.  I also soaked the enclosure in warm water after cooling and used a washing-up brush to remove the paper. It is crucial to let the whole thing cool down properly after ironing. I took me three attempts to do it right because I wasn't patient enough after ironing and peeled off the still warm toner with the paper twice. Throwing it in cold water didn't help either (I wonder why), so finally I just let it sit for half an hour and the transfer was nearly perfect.
Previously I used photoresist and H₂O₂ plus HCl but the photoresist wasn't stable enough for deep etches.
This one came out pretty good (although I never really succeed in painting and sanding reverse etches). Next time I'll try less strong FeCl3, because this time the enclosure got quite hot during etching  and subsequently the toner detached.


A thread to this pedal is also here: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=109664.0

[hylandren]

snowman910, when I switched to presentation paper (having used PNP before that) I too was afraid of removing the mask when I tried to remove the residue...But as you can see from self destroyer's tutorial, its a lot stronger than you think.
Yes, I have used his aggressive method for removing the paper residue and it worked and left the resist intact. In fact, my etches have improved considerably since switching to his methods:
http://music.codydeschenes.com/?page_id=2035

[Hexjibber]

@snowman910

Hey dude, I wrote the tutorial that you referred to, with the paper I use (Polaroid Photo Paper) there is a thin white film over the toner but not in the exposed areas, do you have exposed areas of the box showing through with no white film on, or does the whole thing have a white film?

If you have exposed areas and just white film on the toner parts then you don't need to do anything, just etch away as described in my tutorial. Whenever I do etches I never scrub or even expose the box to water after I've peeled the paper off as it's unnecessary, at least with the paper I mentioned.

Let me know how you get on man!

[Brisance]

Why use FeCl3 or Even HCl + H2O2 on aluminium? how about just dilute HCl or even vinegar?

[Pettol]

Why use FeCl3 or Even HCl + H2O2 on aluminium? how about just dilute HCl or even vinegar?

H2O2 is an oxidizer needed when etching copper (which is the origin of the etchant). Looking at the Pourbaix diagram for aluminum, I don't think you need it actually. On the other hand the diagram doesn't say anything about kinetics so the HCl might etch a lot slower without.
Vinegar will etch slowly.

But, skip the acids and use I NaOH instead.

[Brisance]

Better slow than sorry... or what was the idiom again?

[edy_wheazel]

 BB Preamp + JHS Minibomb.

[deadastronaut]

cool...

[die zoone]

I have learned a lot from you guys. it's been almost a year since I started. Thank you for everything!
The semester is finally over so I can start building again. This is an etch for a magnavibe.

[Hexjibber]

I have learned a lot from you guys. it's been almost a year since I started. Thank you for everything!
The semester is finally over so I can start building again. This is an etch for a magnavibe.

That is wicked man, love it!

[deadastronaut]

Yeah, nice design and clean etch...

[italianguy63]

Nice detail..  It almost looks "sand blasted" in the last pic.   

MC

[Pettol]

Very nice indeed.

[snarblinge]

If only my first post were as impressive, or my most recent!

Nice work