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Or.. a good demonstration of why throwing a radio into the bathtub will kill you. I'll explain later.
Speaking of killing you, as we are using water and electricity here, please be supper-duper cautious. I can't be held responsible for burned fingers, house fires, dead cats or any combination thereof. Please use some common sense!
This is a decent project that should cost you little or no money, depending on what you have laying around the house. The idea is to use electricity and salt water to etch an image into the top of an altoids tin. The same process can be used to actually cut the image all the way through if allowed to go long enough. I'll explain the principles behind this as we go along.
First things first, Project materials and cost:
1 Altoids can, or similar metal canister - $0 (I'm using garbage here...)
1 spare DC power supply brick. 5v or greater. Preferably a decent amperage. I use a 12v 1A supply. it really seems to make no difference beyond how long the etch will take - $0
Old PC case fan, light bulb.. something that will run on the current from the power supply. This is used to limit the amount of current being transmitted, as you don't want to burn out the power supply. - 0$
1 PLASTIC bowl or pan. Never NEVER use a metal pan of any kind. - 0$
About half a cup of salt. - 0$
A couple of bolts and some heavy copper wire - optional 0$
Plastic packing tape (I use clear.. don't have to I suppose.). Not masking tape. It has to stand up to salt water - 0$ I steal mine from my day job.
Sandpaper, or green scrubby. -0$ I used the scrubby from my kitchen sink. Don't tell the girlfriend.
Razor blade or knife. I highly recommend an Exact-o or similar, although I did this with a straight "utility" style blade.
Speaking of killing you, as we are using water and electricity here, please be supper-duper cautious. I can't be held responsible for burned fingers, house fires, dead cats or any combination thereof. Please use some common sense!
This is a decent project that should cost you little or no money, depending on what you have laying around the house. The idea is to use electricity and salt water to etch an image into the top of an altoids tin. The same process can be used to actually cut the image all the way through if allowed to go long enough. I'll explain the principles behind this as we go along.
First things first, Project materials and cost:
1 Altoids can, or similar metal canister - $0 (I'm using garbage here...)
1 spare DC power supply brick. 5v or greater. Preferably a decent amperage. I use a 12v 1A supply. it really seems to make no difference beyond how long the etch will take - $0
Old PC case fan, light bulb.. something that will run on the current from the power supply. This is used to limit the amount of current being transmitted, as you don't want to burn out the power supply. - 0$
1 PLASTIC bowl or pan. Never NEVER use a metal pan of any kind. - 0$
About half a cup of salt. - 0$
A couple of bolts and some heavy copper wire - optional 0$
Plastic packing tape (I use clear.. don't have to I suppose.). Not masking tape. It has to stand up to salt water - 0$ I steal mine from my day job.
Sandpaper, or green scrubby. -0$ I used the scrubby from my kitchen sink. Don't tell the girlfriend.
Razor blade or knife. I highly recommend an Exact-o or similar, although I did this with a straight "utility" style blade.
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Signing UpStep 1Prep the minty tin
For the tin to etch properly, the top of the tin will need to be cleaned to bare metal. This can be done with a fine grade of sandpaper, or a green scrubby. I tend to go with a little of both.
Run the tin under hot water and sand lightly until most of the paint is gone. then clean it up with the scrubby. any areas where there is paint remaining will not etch properly, so take your time.
When it looks clean, rinse and dry it off thoroughly. At this point, try not to touch the surface any more than you have to . The oils from your skin could affect or block the etching.
Run the tin under hot water and sand lightly until most of the paint is gone. then clean it up with the scrubby. any areas where there is paint remaining will not etch properly, so take your time.
When it looks clean, rinse and dry it off thoroughly. At this point, try not to touch the surface any more than you have to . The oils from your skin could affect or block the etching.
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Table salt (sodium chloride) ionizes in water:
NaCl -> (Na+) + (Cl-)
The positive and negative electrodes gather Cl- and Na+ respectively. The positive electrode will make chlorine gas! I am confident you smelled a "pool" like odor when you performed this.
If you don't want to take my word for it, here is a site describing the process in greater detail:
http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch20/faraday.php
In the quantities you are using, the amount of gas produced can be dangerous -- this is the same poison gas used in WWII. An alternative electrolyte you can try for electrolysis is sodium carbonate (washing soda) or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) heated to 200C to produce sodium carbonate.
For the safety of others, please amend / remove this instructable...
I did a little experimenting last night-- http://etchtest.blogspot.com
Curious if anybody has figured out a good inky marker that can be used to mask but will clean off with goof off or something...?
At work I use pure alcohol (they call it E-200, not sure why... 200 proof ethanol?) to remove sharpie marks from aluminum, usually works pretty good but results can vary.