Thread: Will Ammonium Persulphate Etch Glass

just been told that it WONT etch glass and taht its very dangerous stuff as well

Originally Posted by echnidna

I've got some for making printed circuits

but wondering if it will etch (corrode) glass

I'm wondering if you are thinking of trying to etch glass or whether you've spilt some and are hoping it doesn't

Richard

I've got some and was just wondering if it would.
It doesn't so I'll find something else.

Thank to everyone for your valuable input

Bob,
AFAIK besides abrasive blasting and other mechanical methods the only thing that will etch glass is Hydrofluoric acid. This is extrmely nasty stuff. We used it in the boat yard to etch the ally before painting and the watered down wash up had to be collected in a tank full of marble chips before it could go into the drains. I don't know what strength is required for glass etching but I do know that the Ali-brite we used would mark windows. When I was looking at the OH&S stuff I read about a pool technician who spilt some concentrate on himself. He jumped in the pool straight away to try to neutralise it. They had him in hospital and whipped off his leg the same day but he was still dead within a week.

Way back when I was screen printing a bloke I worked for got some specialist ink that had hydrofluoric acid in it as he wanted to print an etched logo onto glass. It may still be available now, but it's much easier to use a vinyl cutter to cut the logo on some "frosted" clear sticker to give the same effect. Otherwise you can get a mask made for your logo by a vinyl cutter, apply it to your glass and sandblast the exposed glass lightly.

Mick

I have one of those "201 formulas" books somewhere, will have a look for it, I thought it had a chemical recipe for glass etching.

Will have a sniff around.


Cheers..........Sean

Good news - found it straight away.

Bad news - it recommended hydrofluoric acid


Sorry mate.............cheers.............Sean

Thanks for the looking fellas,
I WON"T use hydrofluoric acid. (or even Nitric)
You don't feel it on the skin, just feels like water,
until it sinks deeper and starts eating your bone away - then it hurts.