Electrolytic Etching Zinc And Copper

[Herbert1405241469 0]

I didn't know where else to put this, so I figured I'd stick it in this forum since it involved science and chemical reactions

 

I was surfing around the net a couple weeks ago, and found this site:

 

http://steampunkworkshop.com/electroetch.shtml/

 

and thought it was pretty cool, so I decided to give it a shot.

 

In short, what this basically involves is taking a metal, printing a design on it, and sticking the metal into a mixture and adding electricity to it, whereby the metal is eaten away (etched) at all points except where the design was printed. The result looks something like this:

 

 

(This is after he added ink to the grooves to give the picture contrast).

 

I've been doing research. Apparently, this technique has been around for over 150 years and used for printmaking. I've already bought a majority of the pieces I need:

 

Zinc plates (4x5") - $3.99 each, but I just found them on another site for $3.10

Copper plates (4x6") - $15.59, but I just found them on that other site for $5.40

A vertical plastic container to etch them in - Walmart: $3

Staples Basic Gloss Photo Paper (recommended by a site) - $19.99 for a 200 pack, 4x6

Root Kill (Copper Sulfate) - $3-8 (I'm still looking for the best deal)

 

So doing research based on the Steampunk site, I've found other sites that offer an alternative way of doing things, so I thought I'd present the info out there. I haven't done the process yet, but I'll post the results as I do them. In the meantime, here's what I'm planning on doing.

 

I'll be using the Steampunk's site method of ironing on a photograph to the plate that was printed from a laser printer onto the Staples photo paper. This site: ( http://fullnet.com/~tomg/gooteepc.htm ) suggests that the Staples Basic Photo (Gloss) paper was the best and highest quality when performing this procedure, since the paper itself is cheaper and will be removed easier during the process

 

So I'll print off a negative of the picture onto the photo paper, and fuse the toner onto the metal plate using a hot iron. Once the toner has melted onto the plate, I will remove the paper by soaking the metal and paper, till the paper can be removed, and nothing is left but metal and toner.

 

The Steampunk site used an electrical power source to initiate the etching process, but I've found another source indicating that if people don't want to risk electrocution or don't have a car battery laying around, then there is an electrochemical way of creating its own electricity:

 

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"To create your self-etching "battery" lay a copper plate in the bottom (or in my case using a vertical container, it would be suspended in the solution) of the etching tray with a copper strip taped to the back and sticking out of the concentrated Bordeaux etch solution (copper sulphate (root kill mixed with distilled water)), then tape a copper strip to a bared area on the back of the zinc plate to be etched and connect it to the other copper strip, and laid the plate face down supported a centimeter away from the copper plate and leave it to etch. When you .... take it out, and there will be little or no precipitate and the plate will be etched perfectly, showing all the characteristics of a plate etched electrolytically."

 

---------------

 

Source: http://www.greenart.info/galvetch/passive.htm

 

 

 

Once the image is etched, I plan to remove the toner and such, and ink in the grooves for contrast. Then put on some sort of protective varnish or something, and then possibly frame it, to give it a touch of class.

 

The result would hopefully look something like this:

 

 

I'm waiting for copper plates in the mail, and I have to get the Root Kill, but other than that, I'm nearly ready to try this.

 

I'm also working on a special "Herbert Special Edition" of the Steampunk Keyboard mod, using etched wood and such to create a modified keyboard using one of my friend's old NEC brand ones. I've found a way to do it differently, and I'll post info on that in another forum

 

Here's a link to my other project:

http://forums.xisto.com/topic/94202-topic/?findpost=1064377819

 

A variation on the Steampunk Keyboard.

[Mordent 0]

Oooh, nice. There's a fair amount of stuff out there that basically involves eating away exposed areas of your worksurface. Take PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) for example: I've got an old book about how to make them at home, at you effectively buy a piece of silicon with a thin layer of copper on it, then draw on the copper side where you want the "wires" to be using a form of protective coating (I forget exactly what, but the point is that wherever you draw it protects the small area under it), then remove the rest of the excess copper with some nice little acid/solvent thing.Yeah, my exact knowledge of how it works is a little limited. Remember that I'm an electronics student, not a chemistry one, so I don't really pay attention to the details. Combine that with the fact that I've never actually made one in that way myself (simply because there's better ways of doing it these days) and I like to think I'm excused. ;)Still, the concept of creating a horizontally mirrored "negative" has been around for a long time. Printing is an obvious extension of it, and it can be pretty rewarding. I made a nice little ink print for an art project, and it turned out pretty cool. While I'm talking about it, you know you can (if you're feeling clever ) do a series of etch/print cycles with the same plate to add different "layers" of colour to your work? It looks pretty cool, but it definitely takes some practice.

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Yeah, PCB boards have come up in my research, though I know nothing about how they work haha.Still waiting for some supplies to come in, but I'll keep you updated as stuff happens. I'll make sure to take good photos, I just hope it turns out alright. I have to find a hot model to pose for my first portrait piece hehe

[Herbert1405241469 0]

I finally got around to etching my first test. It's been hard since it takes about 2.5 hours to do one start to finish... Here's my story:

 

Ok, so I bought a bag of copper sulfate on ebay (5 lb bag for about $26)

Get that in the mail, and pretty much have everything I need to get started.

 

 

I took a photo I want to test, and do 3 different filters on it in one photo (so I can see how the etching will affect areas of gray and whatnot.)

Once I got the photo the way I want it... I inverted the colors (grayscale colors) and I flip the whole photo horizontally. I inverted because that's what's going to be eaten away on the zinc, and I fliped because when I transfer it from the paper to the zinc, it will be mirrored.

 

I proceed to print the photo onto a Staples Basic 4x6 photo paper using my Dell 3100CN laser printer.

I take a hot iron, and try melting the toner from the paper onto the metal Zinc plate I have (4x5 was about $3.50 each)

 

I then tried 2 tactics... I tried just removing the paper and leaving some toner on the zinc, but that didn't leave all the toner on the metal...

And I tried taking the paper on the zinc and dumping it into a thing of water and slowly peeled the paper away as it got soggy... The problem with the second method is that some of the toner kept coming off, and would make a crappy picture... The first method worked well, but I couldn't get a deep etch because the toner was so thin on the metal, it came off quickly... I need to perfect this part of the procedure.

 

Then I took 500 grams of copper sulfate (powder) and added it to approximately 2.5-3 liters of regular tap water. I was going to use distilled, but it was too late and I didn't feel like going out.

 

I attached a 9 volt battery (though the instructions on the internet didn't mention this for what I was doing) to help speed up the process.

I had the Postive wire (red) going to the zinc plate, and the Negative (black) wire going to a copper plate of approximately the same size. Both plates were lowered into a plastic container and were suspended vertically using plastic coated paper clips and rubber bands. Then I poured the copper sulfate and water mixture into the container, and almost instantly the zinc plate formed a sort of copper-like gunk on the exposed metal parts...

 

I then let it set for about 15 minutes, take it out and wipe the gunk off. I do this every 15 minutes until about 45 min - 1 hour passes. I took it out, and took a scotch brite pad to scrape off the remaining toner. I didn't dump anything down the sink...

 

When the metal was cleaned and dried, I took a black acrylic paint used for metals and painted it with a very very light coat, and wiped the upper layer off with a piece of paper ... The ink stayed in the cracks where the chemicals etched it. I need to polish and varnish it.

 

For cleanup, I took a disposable filter, and filtered the junk out of my copper sulfate solution and currently have the blue liquic (copper sulfate) in containers for future use and testing.

 

I wore gloves the whole time, and took precautions not to breathe in the dust when mixing the copper sulfate and water.

 

The process and materials all need to be refined and perfected, but I think I'm getting somewhere... Here's my second test, for the first one didn't come out very well at all:

 

 

 

It's a photo I took of a friend and his girlfriend being all cute, with my other buddy goofing off in the background. They had no idea haha.

 

The photo doesn't do it justice.

 

That's about it for now, I'll post more pics as I get more of these finished.

[Herbert1405241469 0]

I just received a question as to where I buy my zinc and copper plates. I'll post my response here too, so that anyone looking to try this knows where to go:

 

I picked up zinc and copper plates from 2 places, and I found that one of them is way more costly than the other. The one that was cheaper was here:

 

https://www.printmaking-materials.com/products/intaglio

 

and the more expensive ones were here:

 

http://www.dickblick.com/products/polished-etching-plates/

 

 

I found Blick first, so I bought from them, and they were way way expensive. After I bought some metals from them, I found the other link and found them to be a lot cheaper, but the metal was still good quality. I would recommend the first link.

 

 

I've only etched 1 test plate, and 1 actual "finished" plate I used as a gift, so I'm still rather new at the game, but overall the process itself is rather easy once you get it down. You just need to make sure you get the right equipment and such and maintain safe working conditions, as the copper sulfate isn't 100% environmentally friendly, though it's safer than sulfuric acid

 

One of the key elements to success, as I found with my first test plate, is to use pure black and white (not grayscale) photos to create your negatives. I tried several variations, and found just pure black and white photos work best. Here's an example:

 

 

Works well with sharp contrast.

 

It's a one or zero situation. You either want the zinc metal covered with the toner, or bare. Where it's bare is where it'll etch, so you'll need to invert your picture, and mirror it horizontally for when you transfer it from the paper to your metal.

 

I'm going to to an instructional YouTube video on this, and I'll post the link this weekend.

[Herbert1405241469 0]

YouTube video will have to wait until next weekend. I'm swamped with work until then. I'll make sure to post the video when it's done though

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Since I've been sick with a head cold, and in no shape to make a video worth of YouTube, I'll just jot down some of the things you'll encounter when doing the etching.First off, you're going to need to make sure that you have clean measuring cups to mix the copper sulfate and water. I used filtered tap water and that worked ok, but I'd recommend using distilled water for a cleaner effect.I can't remember the exact measurement of copper sulfate to water proportions, but I think I indicated them somewhere on this page, or if not it is available on one of the links I've already included.For storing the mixture, I have 2 blue water-tight water bottles, that are clear so I can see the mix. Each are a liter, and it takes both to fill my main etching container, which is something like 1.8 liters (so one of the bottles isn't completely full).I rigged up a holder for the metal plates using rubber bands and plastic-coated paperclips, but there's gotta be a better way to do it, because it was too flimsy. The plates were submerged, and have to be extremely close together without touching. I used a 9-volt battery to speed up the etching, and wired the two plates together with the battery between them, I think I indicated which lead to hook up to which plate above.As for putting the image onto the plate that needs to be etched, I found that pure black and white (maximum contrast) works best, and make sure the image is both inverted in color, and horizontally mirrored. It should be mirrored because when you iron it onto the plate, it will be reversed, so when it goes on the plate it will just be inverted and look normal otherwise. The parts that have toner on it will not etch.Putting the toner onto the plate was actually the hardest part. I tried several methods... The first was recommenced by the Steampunk workshop site... that was to iron the paper onto the plate (with the image) and put the whole thing in water to peel the paper away... This actually was hard for me, because when I'd go to remove the paper, some of the toner would come off, and I'd have to start all over again.One of the things that worked was getting the toner to be really really hot, and peeling the paper away so that part of the toner would stick to the metal. Not all of the toner got onto the metal, but it got the job done.Then I put the two plates (copper and zinc <-with the image on it) into the copper sulfate mixture and the zinc plate almost instantly got a copper-brown coating on it where there was no toner covering the metal. I let this sit for awhile, occasionally scraping the gunk off with my hands (which were covered with latex gloves, since the copper sulfate is slightly toxic, and would stain things!) The whole thing soaked approximately 45 minutes to an hour, and I pulled it out and washed it off of all gunk, and tried using several things like baking soda to stop the etching process (since the baking soda is a base, to stop the acid).Don't know if that part is needed though, so test at your own discretion. Then there was a bunch of copper gunk at the bottom of the etching solution, which I filtered out using a painter's filter (sort of like a coffee filter, but for paint) and that separated the gunk from the etching solution, which I could use again, though it wasn't as potent as the first etch. The gunk is mainly copper metal so it should be disposed of properly... don't just dump it.Once the metal dried, with the etch, I put a layer of black paint over it and rubbed off the upper layer with a paper towel before it dried to expose the upper layers... The paint stayed in the grooves, and gave it contrast. Then I let it dry and did it again to make sure it was good enough, and then let it dry. Then I put a coat of sealer over it to make sure the paint didn't fall off, and it was finished!I'm going to hopefully start getting more stuff etched soon, but I've been busy with the holidays and whatnot. I'll keep you all posted.Overall it's not hard to do, it just costs a bit of money and takes time, but all good things do

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Also, forgot to mention, the copper plate that was used can be used again, but you'll have to sand or use a steel wool to rub off the loose layers on top... Make sure to dispose of that properly too. Don't let that stuff go down your drain.