Etched enclosures

[thomasha]

Tried something new: transfering and etching 3 sides at the same time.
Still something to learn. The edges are not as good as I would like, probably needed more effort during the transfer.

Instead of etching everything at the same time I kept turning it in a shallow puddle of acid. The edges suffered with the overexposure too.

[deadastronaut]

Awesome...that looks excellent....

Well worth trying man...nice one

[Hexjibber]

Wow that’s awesome!

[lars-musik]

Wow! Fantastic. I hope, I'll get that out of my head until my next enclosures are due.....

[thomasha]

Thanks!
Has anyone tried something similar?
Doing every side separately can give better results, but takes too much time. I think i’ll work longer on the ironing of the edges next time.

[Marcos - Munky]

I tried it once, doing all the faces but the bottom one: https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=85803.msg1124263#msg1124263

I can't really remember if I did all the faces at the same time or one by one, but I do remember it was a hard etching because one side come more shallow than the other. I didn't tried it again, not for the extra work but because I didn't had to. This one was a drawing by a friend that asked me for the pedal, so it was a kind of "signature exclusive" build .

But I don't think I can do more than one side with as much details as you can. In fact, I don't know if I can do just one side with as much details as you can

[deadastronaut]

my latest....

after months of tinkering on breadboard with different chorus's...here it is,  skyscape chorus.

a heavily modded small stone with bells n whistles.....















and  demo of course....

[bluebunny]

Nice work, Rob! 

[Marcos - Munky]

Awesome - as all your other previous etches

[lars-musik]

SMD always feels a bit like cheating. But it is still a lot of work taking the debugging into account (I submitted a faulty BOM and one gain setting resistor was indeed a 3n3 cap. That took me some time to figure out!).
So here is the "Hipster", two hyped pedals (at least in Germany) in one enclosure. A Benson Preamp and a 1981.

[phasetrans]

So here is the "Hipster", two hyped pedals (at least in Germany) in one enclosure. A Benson Preamp and a 1981.

I really like this. How did you do the color fading? What's the etching solution / time.

[davent]

So here is the "Hipster", two hyped pedals (at least in Germany) in one enclosure. A Benson Preamp and a 1981.

I really like this. How did you do the color fading? What's the etching solution / time.

Just aim, angle your paint source so paint doesn't reach the far end of the enclosure. Practice, experiment spraying a fade on paper before you try it on an enclosure. Way easier to do than explain.
dave

[lars-musik]

I really like this. How did you do the color fading? What's the etching solution / time.
[/quote]
Fading as Davent said. The etching solution is HCl, 24%, heated to about 60°C. But I do the etching under a fume hood in a lab - the gases are noxious and the reaction is quite exothermic. I really wouldn't recommend it at home.

[phasetrans]

Fading as Davent said. The etching solution is HCl, 24%, heated to about 60°C. But I do the etching under a fume hood in a lab - the gases are noxious and the reaction is quite exothermic. I really wouldn't recommend it at home.

My graduate school education was in physical chemistry and materials science, so this is my kind of reaction :-) Have you ever tried a phosphoric / nitric bright dip etchant?

[lars-musik]

My graduate school education was in physical chemistry and materials science, so this is my kind of reaction :-)

Haha. That's settled then.

 Have you ever tried a phosphoric / nitric bright dip etchant?

No, I just googled it.  Sounds very good. However, I found my standard protocol and will stick with it.

[phasetrans]

 Have you ever tried a phosphoric / nitric bright dip etchant?

No, I just googled it.  Sounds very good. However, I found my standard protocol and will stick with it.

What do you use as the protective film in the hot acid? Standard transfer paper?

[lars-musik]

What do you use as the protective film in the hot acid? Standard transfer paper?

This: https://de.farnell.com/kontakt-chemie/positiv-20-200ml/fotolack-positiv-fl-ssigresist/dp/801010

[phasetrans]

What do you use as the protective film in the hot acid? Standard transfer paper?

This: https://de.farnell.com/kontakt-chemie/positiv-20-200ml/fotolack-positiv-fl-ssigresist/dp/801010

Oh, a "real" positive resist. Takes me back to my first engineering job, lithography engineer at AMD.

What do you use to transfer the image? Acetate? Paper made transparent (somehow)?

[lars-musik]

This works good for me: https://www.avery-zweckform.com/produkt/folien-fuer-die-druckformerstellung-3491

[elvis_alive_diy]

My first ever and second DIY pedal build for me and my friend. Big Muff Pi v3 clone with some modifications.
Elecrolytically etched case, it is a bit wild process to control it, first attempt (left) was slightly better than second one