Etching a logo

Dicko

Dicko

Joined
Dec 28, 2014
Messages
332
G'day all,

When I stripped and etched my Ratweiler I had quite a few questions as to how I did it. Well I did the same to my Battle Grade AK47 the other night and took some pictures and videos (if they work).

I pretty much just taught myself through good old Google! :thumbup:
All you need is salt, ear buds (I think you mob call them q-tips??) and a battery charger. I am unsure if it can be done with a 'smart' charger.

1 - first thing you need to do is make up a saturated salt solution.



2 - Next, plug in your battery charger.




3 - Positive lead clamped to blade. Negative to a saturated bud, taking care to ensure the steel of the clamp is in contact with the solution to unsure the electric-trickery is conducted. I found that 24V resulted in a quicker etch.

4 - gently move the cotton bud across the logo that you want etched, regularly changing the bud to a clean oneand keeping the whole area wet. I found it beneficial to also keep the logo area clean and flushed with the salt solution.

I will let the pictures and videos speak for themselves. The whole process including setting up takes about 10 minutes.
*not sure why the pictures aren't showing the correct orientation, sorry*.






Videos:






5 - and that's pretty much it! There are probably other things I should be doing and I'm happy to take some advice.
 
Looking good!!!

Just never ever touch the edge with the second electrode. The edge is thin and all the electricity wanting to go through there will melt a nick into the edge with only a single spark.
Better to tape off every exposed metal which is not needed to hold the 1st electrode.
I brush my edged logos with baking soda. It's neutralising the rust I heard.
Also after etching you could expose the logo to AC like from a door beel transformer. That'll darken it even more.

Good work!
 
Thanks very much for the tutorial. It looks pretty straightforward.

I have one question. When you attach the positive clamp to the blade, did you attach it to a coated part of the blade, or does it need to be attached to bare metal?

Thanks, and the logo looks great.
 
AntDog said:
Thanks very much for the tutorial. It looks pretty straightforward.

I have one question. When you attach the positive clamp to the blade, did you attach it to a coated part of the blade, or does it need to be attached to bare metal?

Thanks, and the logo looks great.
Click to expand...

It needs to be attached to bare metal.
 
Man that is cool
I wonder if my voltage reg I use for anodizing will work ?
 
Very cool. I can see how it was done, but I still don't understand exactly what is happening. How does this work, I guess the electric charge and salt solution is somehow targeting the printed logo that is already on the blade from the factory, and eating into the finish of the surface, but I don't understand why it's targeting the printed logo.

Saw this on YouTube, looks like you can make your own logo too...


[video=youtube;bV-PItEcLXY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-PItEcLXY[/video]
 
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Water, even salt water, is not a great conductor. There is a lot of resistance. As current flows, it creates heat because of this. Kind of like mini arc flashes. It slowly eats away at the metal. It targets the logo because that is its path back to the source (return). The coating acts as an insulator.
 
Great DIY by the way. Thanks. Never even thought about doing it this way. I always use muriatic.
 
Somebody is probably going to be tempted to give you the $100 answer, but the simple $.02 answer is the current must pass through the solution to create an electrochemical reaction that eats into the steel at a controllable rate, resulting in the desired etch. ;)
 
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