Thread: More homemade metal labels

Congratulations Graziano, nice write up and great examples of reproduction nameplates. Perfect for one-off name-plates.

For etching brass and bronze you could also use ferric chloride, or ammonium persulphate (from dick smith or jaycar) but it's not capable of being regenerated like the acid cupric chloride.

I used to make my own printed circuit boards using a spray on positive photo resist, but it requires an ultra-violet light box and a bit of practice to get good results with fine tracks.

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by Stustoys

So its dead easy then
Very nice work Graziano
Was tempted to ask "Why did you spell harvester incorrectly?" But I thought my typing might let me down.

Stuart

didnt sound dead easy Stuart...

if I ever need one I wont need to set myself up now..i know this beaut guy who does really great work...

good stuff

on the first one are you going to paint the background black or just 'antique' the badge?

Originally Posted by burraboy

Nice work Graziano!
The photosensitive film is new to me. I have tried etching using spray-on photosensitive resist and an iron-on material but have never had much success with them working properly. I suppose it is a matter of mastering the medium through experience and you have done well with what you are using. How about the coloured effects, what do you do there?
Shellac makes a good cheap resist for large area blocking and a PCB pen is good for edges and any fine blocking.
Most of the etching I do is repeat work rather than one-offs and I use silkscreening to get the image, but for small runs or one-offs, your process looks the goods!

Burraboy: thanks for the tips about blocking out and the shellac it's always good to hear from an expert in the area. The different colours in the Parks badge were laid down as black spray all over, once it dried the red was painted over the black in the hollows and let dry with the sanding to clean it up. I went through about three cans of the spray on resist and I could never get it to work, nobody I've spoken to has either. The particular product I bought turned out to have date codes and the supplier was selling stuff four years past it's use by date!!. Thanks for the wrap!.

RayG: It's almost impossible to get ferric chloride up here these days, I could make it from scratch but the acid cuprous chloride does do the trick once you make up a batch and it never really wears out. I made a great lightbox that is using a 400W mercury street light, so I get both visible and UV light and seems to handle every resist so far.

Eskimo: It was specified as a bare badge with no paint infill, even though the original was sure to have had it once. I really should have filled it with black and let them strip it if they wanted to. It just has clear acrylic right now to stop tarnishing.

Thanks for all the feedback guys!.

Originally Posted by Graziano

It just has clear acrylic right now to stop tarnishing.

acrylic to stop it tarnishing...what....letting it look new is not just on.....if there is one thing I learnt by restoring antique furniture was, you must restore any patina that was removed in the restoration...surley this applies to old machines as well...make em look spiffy and make em work...but let em keep their age....

It needs some patina black to make it look its age

Originally Posted by eskimo

acrylic to stop it tarnishing...what....letting it look new is not just on.....if there is one thing I learnt by restoring antique furniture was, you must restore any patina that was removed in the restoration...surley this applies to old machines as well...make em look spiffy and make em work...but let em keep their age....

It needs some patina black to make it look its age

It's easy in the acid bath to make it a uniform aged brass brown but I thought I'd leave it to the end user to accomplish that once he gets back to SA, the letters are also crisp and sharp rather than the original's rounded appearance too so he'd have to round it somehow with a buffer.