Knife to a gun fight etching edition

[scott kozub]

I firmly believe the addage why buy something when you can spend twice as much building a crappier version yourself.

I want to start etching and have been looking at units and outputs. Pretty simple devices. The thought hit me that i have an inverter tig welding machine. Yes its 200 amp but i can dial it back to 5 amp and run ac or dc. I can also play with pulse and electrode positive and negative settings just to complicate things.

Any reason i couldnt weld a plate to a tungeston for a pad and use it for etching? Im sure itll be the most overkill etching power supply ever.

If im in a rush i can crank her up and blow a hole in no time.

 

[seanj]

Assuming your machine is 240 volts I think your DC would be OK, but I think your AC might get umm extra crispy.

Might try it on a piece of scrap...

 

[john april]

what is the voltage @ 5 amps ?

 

[scott kozub]

what is the voltage @ 5 amps ?

According to the spec sheet, Voltage ranges from 10.2 v at the low end to 18 v at the high end.

One problem could be that that AC voltage only goes as low as 20A. I'll give it a shot on some scrap pieces and see what happens. I've welded pop cans and razor blades together so I can be pretty precise. I don't think I can damage the machine. Shouldn't be any worse than sticking an electrode. Not that I ave ever done that