Copper Sheet Etching

What are the benefits of photo etching copper.

Copper sheet etching.

Create patina for your beads. Copper plate etching is a traditional form of printmaking that delivers beautifully crisp line work and a wonderfully unique aesthetic. Laser cutting copper is a subtractive manufacturing technology that uses a high power laser beam to cut flat sheet materials. You can also find brass bracelet blanks.

5 rinse clean inspect the pcb. Safety first when learning how to acid etch copper sheet it s best to follow some basic safety steps to avoid the possibility of injury. The high precision laser vaporizes a cut line through the copper leaving a 90 degree high quality cut edge finish. After this check the traces remove any unwanted copper between the traces using a scratch pen.

Brass or copper to etch. I was looking a while for a good set of instructions for electric copper etching and found a quite good instruction at jake von slatts steampunkworkshop and decided to refine it a bit and create an own instruction set in german. A computer directs this laser to follow the cutting line provided in your digital design. 8 steps to copper etching.

4 start your etch. First invented simply as a method of replicating an image intaglio printmaking has evolved over centuries into an art form in it s own right. Now that you have the blank copper sheet set the next step is to choose a design and put it in a resist either through cutting or printing. Buff the surface with steel wool once the etchant has been neutralized and rinsed away.

The time for etching will depend on the levels of temperatures and the thickness of the copper sheet. Before you wear them make sure to prepare the copper sheet you will be etching first. Etch the resulting beads and bezels exactly the same way you etched the copper sheets. I highly recommend stamping blanks unless you have a trusty pair of metal shears and a metal hole puncher.

I love the resulting detail. Place the cu clads in the ferric chloride fecl3 solution for around 5 8 minutes. These are fun to etch but i advise starting with something smaller. Firstly make sure you re wearing safety glasses and wearing appropriate gloves to protect yourself from any spillages of the acidic solution you ll be using.

For example punching in the stamping process can cause deformation especially with smaller and or numerous apertures. Then put the sheet with the print towards the copper on the plate and apply it with high.