etching

Etching Brass Plaques

Etching Brass Plaques

Experimenting with three different methods for making your own custom brass plaques.

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Photo-Etching and Soldering Your Own Brass Model Parts

Photo-Etching and Soldering Your Own Brass Model Parts

Watch a master modeler show you how to photo-etch your own custom parts and solder them together.

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Maker Faire New York: Using Microbes to Etch PCBs

Maker Faire New York: Using Microbes to Etch PCBs

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is a gram-negative bacterium that lives, in the natural world, in iron sulfide (aka “pyrite,” aka “fool’s gold) deposits, where it eats iron and sulfur and excretes sulfuric acid. Now, a team of graduates, undergraduates, and post-docs at New York’s Columbia and Cooper Union universities is working to develop a genetically-modified strain of A. ferrooxidans…

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Etching Metalized Plastic

Etching Metalized Plastic

I have been hacking on some cheap R/C cars, lately, and wanted to etch metal films off of a few of the bits. I knew that the usual strong acid and base suspects would remove it, but many folks don’t keep these substances around, for whatever reasons. I got curious about milder etchants, and did a simple test with some household chemicals.

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How-To: Clear Glass Circuit Boards

How-To: Clear Glass Circuit Boards

Interesting homebrew process from Charles Lohr, who demonstrates it here with a multicolor-LED-controlling capacitive touch sensor that works from the reverse side of the glass, i.e. you can use it without actually touching the copper. No holes are drilled in the glass, so all components have to be SMT. Cool stuff.

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How-To: Simple Electro-Etching for Knife Blades

How-To: Simple Electro-Etching for Knife Blades

A bit of nail polish, a container of salt water, a 9V battery, a Q-tip, and some alligator leads. That’s pretty much it. Easy, inexpensive process from Instructables user lasersage appears to give impressive results.

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