Hi All,
I wanted to share my new box. Not only is it my first etched enclosure, it's my first stomp box, and also my first ever electronics project. I know its rough around the edges, and nowhere near up to the standard of what I have been seeing on the forum, but I am happy with what I have done. I also etched the PCB myself. Its a Fuzz Face with a few minor tweaks, a trim for biasing, drawdown resistor, polarity protection etc.
I etched with ferric chloride and had a bit of a journey of discovery: I decided to use the gravity\sponge method because I have seen a lot of people have great results with that. So I drizzled, dabbed, wiped and re-drizzled with room temperature ferric. After 30 minutes there were lots of pin-head size bubbles, but relatively little etching. Stage 2: I decided to warm up the ferric by sitting my container in a bath of boiled water. I repeated the above for a further 25 minutes with similar results. So then I decided to dunk the whole thing in the mixture and constantly agitate. After about 15 minutes I started to see some aggressive, patchy etching and continued. All-in-all the whole process took 1hour and 20. As you can see there are plenty of areas where the etch ate through the resist.
I think that my original mistake with the sponge was that I was leaving the ferric to stand on the surface too long in-between wipes, and I should have been constantly wiping and re-applying. Next box (a germanium Big Muff Pi that I have successfully breadboarded and added a few of my own tweaks - switchable caps before the last stage for a heavy bass boom, and switchable 3 stage clipping) I will try the sponge method again, but be a bit more enthusiastic with my wiping and re-applying (unless you think that is a bad idea?)
I'd like to find a way to get rid of the oxidation in the small pits.


I'd like to thank the following people for all their invaluable help in seeing me through my first ever build: Duck_Arse, Mac, Slade, Deadastronaut, LucifersTrip, pinkjimiphoton, Electric Warrior, PRR, GibsonGM (sorry if I have missed anyone out).
I'll make no apologies for posting this up on the Pictures! thread too when I get time, because I am chuffed as punch with my results!