Electro etch voltage

R

redhorsetactical

Well-Known Member
I have a tattoo power supply that puts out up to 15 vlts dc. I was going to build the electro etch kit from the plans that are out there. I am curious if anyone knows the best voltage for steel romoval and the one for blackening. It was just a thought and the possibilty of saving 50 bucks on the unit and put it towards handle material or something. I have to be honest I searched for a few min on the forum but not an in depth search. So I appologize in advance if therebis already a thread on this sort of thing.

an armed society is a polite society
 
I have used both 12 & 24 volts. Just test it on a piece of stock till you get what you want. I have found a good etch time first, then switched the unit to ac for blackening and about half of that time blackens as I like it. I use 3 second per pass time. In most cases it takes me 6 passes @ 12v to etch the way I like, rarely do I blacken these days. My transformer is 2 amps. I use USA Knifemakers electrolyte.

http://usaknifemaker.com/etching-supplies-c-53/electrolyte-94-use-for-carbon-and-hss-steel.html
 
TacticallySharp said:
I have used both 12 & 24 volts. Just test it on a piece of stock till you get what you want. I have found a good etch time first, then switched the unit to ac for blackening and about half of that time blackens as I like it. I use 3 second per pass time. In most cases it takes me 6 passes @ 12v to etch the way I like, rarely do I blacken these days. My transformer is 2 amps. I use USA Knifemakers electrolyte.

http://usaknifemaker.com/etching-supplies-c-53/electrolyte-94-use-for-carbon-and-hss-steel.html
Click to expand...

Thanks man that def helps a lot. I'm going to see if my power supply will hold up to the challenge hahaha. If not the onward to the home made one. Thanks again man

an armed society is a polite society
 
The way i was taught to remember what the Dc & Ac do is that the D stand for cuts DEEP and A will then blacken.

I personally Just use the Ac these days and it gives a solid attractive logo. Put your Alligator clip side as close as you can to the logo area and try different pads for the etching pad. I have found that the synthetic hand cloth like the "Sham Wow" stuff from the commercials works great and is very inexpensive.

Experiment yourself on some cheap old knives for stainless and any thing else you may have for carbon steel till it does what you want in a measured amount of passes across the stencil.
 
rhinoknives said:
The way i was taught to remember what the Dc & Ac do is that the D stand for cuts DEEP and A will then blacken.

I personally Just use the Ac these days and it gives a solid attractive logo. Put your Alligator clip side as close as you can to the logo area and try different pads for the etching pad. I have found that the synthetic hand cloth like the "Sham Wow" stuff from the commercials works great and is very inexpensive.

Experiment yourself on some cheap old knives for stainless and any thing else you may have for carbon steel till it does what you want in a measured amount of passes across the stencil.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man yea I'm going to build the etch pad this week and give it a shot. How well does the blackening work on an acid etched and rock tumbled surface?

an armed society is a polite society
 
Extensive testing lead me to 16v as ideal for my methods, and etching solutions.

15 VDC will not give you a black mark though...
 
rhinoknives said:
You will have to play with it for a answer for that question?
Click to expand...

Yea I just went ahead and built the electro etcher ftom the plans on chris crawfords site. I have some 1095 coming in this week. I'm going to mess around with it to see what she does. I will acid etch and tumble a piece to see how it'll do

an armed society is a polite society
 
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