Second attempt at salt etching

Curses! I thought I might have been getting a decent result. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Current biggest issue is getting a decent resistor onto the aluminium with enough detail that I can get crisp lettering. I think at the moment the issue is that the printer that I have is either low on toner, does not deposit enough toner or is set up to maximise toner and I can't turn it off.

So the first thing I tried was the first method (glossy magazine paper) with a bit of nail polish remover. I also added pressure by using a clamp I picked up from the hardware store. However, I feel that my mistake on this attempt was that I used two bits of metal (the aluminium stock and bit of scrap steel) and it didn't put equal pressure across the toner.

Result: toner didn't stick.

(Also, didn't clean up the metal first either, which can't have helped.)

Second attempt today was using the second method (back of sticker paper - waxy type). This is the one that is supposed to give the best results. The immediate issue was that the toner didn't stick to it going through the printer. Not what I was expecting, I poked around the settings a bit and managed to get a bit of toner onto the paper. The result was … lacklustre.

So I went back to the first method, but this time I put some padding paper between the paper carrying the toner and the steel sheet, and this time I managed to (finally!) get a decent amount of toner onto the aluminium. Yes!

So hooked it all up, got the juice flowing and the result was … about the same as the first time.

It's definitely an issue with the toner. It isn't on there thick enough to stop the salt water from eating away at the aluminium, which leaves it with that chewed out look and rough lettering. I can't think of any other way to get the amount of detail on there that I am after other than printing it. I was looking at the photoresist film, which could work. But that would require buying the film, plus some UV light(s) and who knows how much more equipment. I know we need to buy more toner for our printer, but there should be plenty of black.

I think for the next effort, I'm going to have to try a heat option. Which will either mean investing in a hot air gun or using the oven. Toner should need about 100c to melt the toner, the trick is to not burn it. More experimentation needed!

Custom stickers! Sort of...

Yes, this is another Geocaching post. :)

With Geocaching, there are different levels of commitment to people who want to play (read: decide how much money you want to spend), and one of the things which is "a thing" in the game is to drop swag in to caches for other people to find (and possibly move around). From what I've seen, swag can vary between something really nice and expensive like a collectible coin to assorted "junk" (cheap stuff from the dollar store like little plush toys).

As much as I would like go throwing around wads of money and buying toys and keychains and other cool little knick-knacks to give away, I simply don't have the money for it. So I figured I'd try and make (modify?) existing things to hopefully make them a bit more interesting. The level I'm aiming at is interesting enough that someone sees it and goes "that's interesting" but not so interesting that they decide they want to keep it and add it to their collection! It's a fine line to aim for (made a bit harder that one person might look at, say, a hot wheels car and go "meh" while another might go "yes, score!")

So a while back, we found one of those cheap poker sets that someone threw out during verge pickup, so I used this tutorial (YouTube, 2min) to make a couple of little stickers to put on the middle blank part of chips:

So far, the cost for these is:

• Poker chips: "free" (would be approx. 10c each to buy more, in blocks of 200)
• Packing tape: $6.45 (I used about 20cm and have about 60m left)
• Toner: negligible amount (though I need to buy more toner anyway)
• And an afternoon of time... free? I had some spare time...

With these little thingies that I'm making to release out into the wild, I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum, due to not having a lot of spare money. However, I'm classing this as both a hobby (having fun) and being creative (making stuff). I've already had a go at etching aluminium (which I need to refine, but the concept is sound) and now I've made these stickers (I was aiming for waterslide decals, but these will do for now) and odds are that I'll want to figure out how to make other stuff on the cheap.

With these, the only thing holding the tape (and toner) onto the plastic chip is the residual glue from the tape after dissolving the paper backing (and on these I wasn't as thorough as I should have been and found there was still a bit of paper on there after it dried). I'd like to add some epoxy resin over the top to really make them pop, but another consideration apart from cost is not getting involved with too many toxic chemicals. That's why I went for salt etching instead of acid etching (which is faster).

I figure that I might need to drop a few more dollars and get a can of spray lacquer or other sealant to make the stickers a little more robust … but that'll be something for another day.

Salt etching aluminium

Due to varied reasons (one of the main ones being a desire to create something), I wanted to try my hand at etching aluminium. I've had prior experience with it from one of the places that I used to work at and from College, but I was hoping to avoid having to use Ferric Chloride or other strong chemicals. After a bit of browsing I found that it is possible to do with salt water and a bit of electric current. That seemed like a better idea than to be using toxic chemicals (and then trying to dispose of them).

The first couple of prints failed because I was trying to print an Australian flag, but the detail was too fine. My very first print I rubbed the paper too hard and it ripped, so I scrubbed that one. The second one had many defects of missing toner or details covered by paper pulp. I used magazine paper, and that wasn't blank so some of the toner from that ended up filling in what was meant to be blank spaces.

For my third attempt at a print, I opted for large lettering, but even that was fairly dull and blurry once transferred onto the ali.

The setup … looked dodgy as anything!

Basically running a 5V DC power supply. A bit dodgy to have a stainless steel knife in a salt water bath along with the piece of aluminum being etched. I could see it not taking much fort things to shift around and get a short.

I did tape the knife to the side of the container to try and reduce the risk. Long term, I'd like to maybe get a holder 3D printed or something in order to make it safer and eliminate the chances of a short. But that's a long term thing - right now I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum. Current spend: $2. Not counting prior items that I already owned (such as a multimeter to check the polarity of the wires).

The result … is less than what I was hoping for.

I'm 95% certain that the reason for the failure was not enough toner on the print. I needed to use a destructive method (soaking in water) to remove the paper backing, I may need to explore other methods to get a cleaner deposit of the toner onto the aluminium. A pretty decent etch (depthwise, I mean) for only a few minutes of effort.

The end goal is nice crisp writing, and I think I am going to either need better transfer medium to get the toner onto the ali, or a better printer. I think buying toner is going to be my next step, unless I can find another option of paper I can use. Fingers crossed!

Geocaching

Went out today for my first geocache hunt. There aren't too many around where I am, but I was able to find my first two.

Currently planning to see if I can pick up a trackable traveller (they cost about $6 each, give or take depending on the type you get and where you get them from), and see if I can get it all the way out to a friend of mine who live in the USA.

We'll see how far into the hobby I get, money is always an issue and I tend to plan bigger than I can afford.

A good day

Today was a good day. Did practically zero paperwork - most of the day was physical work in the yard, working on trucks and changing tyres.

Much better than being stuck behind a computer all day. A bit sore now (and will probably be more sore in the morning) but it's a good sore, from getting things done with your hands.

Four for four

The last one is gone now. :(

There is a plover family (Masked Lapwings, a type of ground nesting bird) that lives on our street that haven't had much luck with their offspring.

They aren't too bright, and the chicks tend to get run over by cars, washed down storm drains, get eaten or get killed in some other way. They've only had one or two survive to adulthood in the last five years.

They had a brood of four hatchlings recently (the chicks are sooooo cute!) and due to the new veggie patch they were growing up super fast. Probably because they had a good food and water source.

As normal, the chicks got picked off one by one. The last one disappeared, we assume it got grabbed by a cat or a hawk since there was no sign of it except for a few feathers. Poor little chikkies...

Evernote

Having yet another go at writing, again.

This time trying out Evernote, the free version. See if it helps if  can add little notes from my phone as well as from my computer. It may make me more productive. Or I'll just waste more time staring at my phone.

Won't know until we try!