Building a Etching machine

I realize that people are trying to help when they describe what they are doing. Unfortunately, sometimes what they are doing is extremely hazzardous and they are just "getting away with it". When describing a technique that can be hazzardous, it should be ones obligation to also describe the hazzards AND the relevant safeguards. One must keep in mind that the forum members have different levels of knowlege and expertise in different areas. Those with the knowlege and expertise may see the hazzards and take the appropriate measures. Those without can get into trouble quite easily by using incompete information.

The atmosphere here is congenial and friendly. I would hope that forum members would not sue one another because the advice given caused a problem of some sort (unless one happens to end up making wootz). Unfortunately, one cannot guarantee that the relative of a forum member will not sue if they find their loved one dead on the shop floor. These posts are all in the public domain and it would not take much for some ambulance-chasing lawyer to dig up enough stuff to cause a lot of grief.

There are a lot of good and talented people on this forum. It would be very sad if one of them got hurt because of bad advice.

Phil
 
How does a simple post on building an etcher become a thread of such bullshit. I had no knowledge of this stuff when I built mine but one thing I do have is a good amount of common sense. Common sense Told me to read about the process, understand the process and to proceed with a fair amount of caution, why? because electricity can kill you known fact. Buffers read up and understand what goes on or you may find your polished blade in your forehead it happens and whose fault will it be....yours


Come on folks if this stuff bothers you than maybe really you should not be doing it. Thats the problem with lots of folks, is so and so did not pay attention and kills himself and its someone else's fault because he was a dumbass and failed to apply common sense, get professional help or simply spend the time to read up on the subject hey that a novel idea.

This thread and the contents really take the cake, buy all means go spend your money and get a profeesional grade etcher and anodizer or build your own the choice is yours.

Talk of possible lawsuits in a building a etcher thread thats a first for me, I have edited my oringinal post the tutorial is up in one of the stickies good luck

Spencer
 
pso said:
I realize that people are trying to help when they describe what they are doing. Unfortunately, sometimes what they are doing is extremely hazzardous and they are just "getting away with it". When describing a technique that can be hazzardous, it should be ones obligation to also describe the hazzards AND the relevant safeguards. One must keep in mind that the forum members have different levels of knowlege and expertise in different areas. Those with the knowlege and expertise may see the hazzards and take the appropriate measures. Those without can get into trouble quite easily by using incompete information.

The atmosphere here is congenial and friendly. I would hope that forum members would not sue one another because the advice given caused a problem of some sort (unless one happens to end up making wootz). Unfortunately, one cannot guarantee that the relative of a forum member will not sue if they find their loved one dead on the shop floor. These posts are all in the public domain and it would not take much for some ambulance-chasing lawyer to dig up enough stuff to cause a lot of grief.

There are a lot of good and talented people on this forum. It would be very sad if one of them got hurt because of bad advice.

Phil
Click to expand...
Point taken...

Links removed.

Fend for yourselves.
 
Hey guys I am with SAR on this one. We all need common sense with all of this. If we are going to remove the link for building and etcher then we need to apply the same logic to all of the posts here. We need to remove links on building a forge, it could burn you, same with grinders, you could loose a finger or arm. Just about everything we do in life has a danger. Even driving a car is dangerous. I am not trying to pick a fight but all of this PC stuff sometimes really gets me. Everyone has a brain and should use it, if they do not then they should suffer the consequences. If we make rules so that everything in life is complelely safe then we will not be able to ever do anything and even that has dangers associated with it. Sorry for the rant folks.
 
Hey this is a link to all the best tutorials on the web, Dan gray maintains this and it is the place I start when I have questions about many things related to knifemaking

Just look thruogh and you will find more info than you can use.

http://www.knivesby.com/knifemaking.html

Spencer
 
ya SAR thats a good page. i turned the web site into a pdf file and have it on my mp3 player. i think my buffer scares me the most out of all my tools. just be safe and use your melon. lets get back to etcher talk
 
This is the problem with this country these days. "you might hurt somebody" let's see, how many people die in cars every year, but we keep driving. How many have died electroetching a knife blade? Just like the "do Gooders", whining about global warming crap, but still drive their cars all over the place.

Let me choose to do something stupid It's not your job to police the world keeping stupid people safe.

All I wanted was to find out how to make one of these machine to save me some money and finally be able to mark metal things (knives) with my name.

Thanks alot!!! Oh there are wolves up here in Wyoming that need saved.:barf:
 
762 i cannot send you a email if you need a hand ( sure I can help you ) feel free to give me a call my nuber is somewhere in here or go to my webpage.

I hope you understand my stance on the content in this thread.

Spencer
 
okay, all assumptions that Doing Stuff is too dangerous or not dangerous enough or whatever (it's getting confusing) aside:

13.6 volts DC from a decent bench PS should gt me somewhere. i'll have to go look up the amperage, but it's not particularly wimpy.

salt water is theoretically usable, though i have no idea what concentration to use. What else can be used that is possible to DIY? i have ACCESS to chem labs and PhD.s, but let's keep it simple.

how good i electrical tape on a simple stencil (my initials are pretty easy, especially in angular script)? how long does this generally take? I know i am going to have to play with it, but some ballpark starting point saves a lot of time.
 
SAR said:
762 i cannot send you a email if you need a hand ( sure I can help you ) feel free to give me a call my nuber is somewhere in here or go to my webpage.

I hope you understand my stance on the content in this thread.

Spencer
Click to expand...

Will email.

Roger that! E
 
Do not use salt water.....they have great chemicals a small bottle will go a long long way cost about 12.00 to 20.00. You can get a a whole roll of batting material at walmart, target cut up your own strips for marking.You will also want a large bag of rubber bands to hold on the padding as well

One way to look at etching is you allow yourself one last chance to screw the knife up when you place a bad mark you have little recourse other than to tell your self how stupid you are for not paying attention and please laugh now and say it will not happen to me, use good stencils, chemicals and machine.

Leave the salt in the ocean;)

Spencer
 
o come on SAR you never used salt. :) thats all i use. concentration is real salty. make it as salty as you can, when the water stops asorbing salt your good. baking powder works good as well because it does not rust. feric cloride also works. but make sure to test befor trying on your blade.
 
SAR said:
How does a simple post on building an etcher become a thread of such bullshit. I had no knowledge of this stuff when I built mine but one thing I do have is a good amount of common sense. Common sense Told me to read about the process, understand the process and to proceed with a fair amount of caution, why? because electricity can kill you known fact. Buffers read up and understand what goes on or you may find your polished blade in your forehead it happens and whose fault will it be....yours


Come on folks if this stuff bothers you than maybe really you should not be doing it. Thats the problem with lots of folks, is so and so did not pay attention and kills himself and its someone else's fault because he was a dumbass and failed to apply common sense, get professional help or simply spend the time to read up on the subject hey that a novel idea.

This thread and the contents really take the cake, buy all means go spend your money and get a profeesional grade etcher and anodizer or build your own the choice is yours.

Talk of possible lawsuits in a building a etcher thread thats a first for me, I have edited my oringinal post the tutorial is up in one of the stickies good luck

Spencer
Click to expand...

spence you could have saved a lot of writing by just saying some guys don't have much or any common sense I'm not pointing fingers but just stating a sad fact... better safe than sorry to mention it.... bullsh!t has it's place in a garden too so it's not all bad.... :D


J just short for J-rod I guess :D
 
Not sure what you are getting at Dan but it souds good

Spencer
 
for all you douting the power of salt water :). this was done with salt water.

jumpingfish1.JPG
 
Spencer

Sorry for getting you upset. The comments about safety were not aimed at you or your posts but at those of people giving advice about how to change the circuit that you had linked to in an unsafe way.

While it is easy for someone with some experience to exercise common sense, how do the people starting out know what precautions to take or even that precautions are neccessary or what questions to ask?

There have been quite a few threads where people describe how they have cut themselves, burnt themselves or injured themselves while using some other power tool. If one does not get away with just a tingle after being electrocuted, one is probably doing to be on the floor, unconcious. Often one will not be breathing and, as someone aluded, to there will be no heartbeat. Brain damage/death follows a few minutes later. Do those of you crying "do-gooder" think that someone who did not get away with it will be posting here afterwards?

Getting in trouble for what you post is total BS but unfortunately it can happen. Just ask the guy over at W&C with the thread about being investigated by the police regarding something that he had posted at BF.

Phil
 
JT can you post some details regarding the etch?

did you use the 25V electro etcher linked to, or was this using one with a variac. if so, what voltage was used? what amps?

And how long was the etcher turned on?

The schemativs on the 25V etcher are great, but I'm not seeing anything on the specifics of using it? it is turned on for 2 second, 2 minutes or 2 days kind of things. I know there will always be some experimentation for each time, but a ballpark would help out immensely
 
Everything us knifemakers do is dangerous, from start, to finish.
Even our end product can be dangerous....

Darwinian theory dictates that those not smart enough to educate themselves about the dangers around them, and mitigate the risk, get weeded out.
It makes the species stronger.
 
amps = volts / resistience. watts = amps x volts. it takes 1 calorie to increse 1ml of water 1 degree. watt = joule per sec. 4.187 joules = 1 calorie. so say your pulling 2 amps at 25v thats 50 watts or 50 joules a sec. devide that by 4.187 and that gives you 11.94 calories per sec. that will rase 1ml of water 11.94 deg every sec. but thats way more water than we use in etching. say we use 1/10th of a ml. thats 11.94 x 10 = 119.4 deg the water will increase in one sec. you will quickley boil the water.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top