Etched Minty Valentines Candy Box

Step 5 POWER ON!

OK. Once you have it all together, make sure the tin is not touching the wire/bolts in the liquid. Make sure nothing is shorted. Make sure your fingers are not in the fan. Put the cat in the closet.

Plug in the power supply. For safety - DO NOT leave the room. Sit there and watch. It should not take that long. And it's cool looking.

You should immediately notice the fan spinning, and bubbles rising from the bolts. If none of this is going on, unplug the power and check all your connections. It could be one of several things.

1. Wires crossed or wired incorrectly. The positive should be on the tin, the negative on the wire/bolts. Make sure nothing is shorting out. If the bubbles are only coming off the tin, you have it wired backwards.

2. Parts are too far apart. Try to make it less than an inch, if you can.

3. Not enough power. You might need a stronger supply.

Once you have bubbles, you will notice the water start to change colors. It can vary depending on the metals you are using. There will eventually be some scum as well. This is all normal. In the pictures, you can see mine going a bit orange.

Let it go for about 5 minutes. You can check every now and then to see how it's working. Times will vary depending on the strength of your power supply. Once it appears to be etched to your satisfaction, unplug the power, and remove the tin. Rinse it well in warm water, and remove the tape. If any adhesive is left behind, just clean it off with GOO GONE or some such solvent.

I would not recommend using the bowl for food after this. The scum left behind should be explanation enough.

Comments

[oub]

This is the coolest presentation. Thank you so much for this. Thank you mostly for responding to the comments! Every question I had was answered. Oh... and thank you for the sense of humor.

[dizzytired]

Is this technically electroplating? I dunno if I made a mistake somewhere along the line, but I used a couple chrome vanadium sockets in place of bolts and I seemed to get just a really shiny surface instead of that etched look.

[mandy]

hey i got problems to understand the power connections. Does the negative wire comes directly from the DC negative currentand only the positive to the PC fan? if it doesn`s is like that can you please explain me how do i connect the corrent to the pc fan. and does the pc fan has to have the 5 or 4 wires, `cause i got one of 12 v with the 4 wires unified to 2 wires wherever the most urgent answer is the first. thanx.

[photozz]

The negative wore from the power source goes directly to the bolts in the tank. The positive wire goes in to the fan. the "negative, or other side coming off the fan goes to the metal to be etched. As far as the fan type, all you need is a fan that spins. You could also use a light of some kind. The fan is just in the circuit to limit the amount of electricity that can go through the circuit at one time. If the fan is not there, the water would basically be short circuiting the power supply. this could cause it to over heat.

[fecund]

If you put a cup upside down over each bolt, you can collect yourself some hydrogen in one and oxygen in the other!

[T3h_Muffinator]

Yeah, it's really nice when you have both electrodes in one spot so you get the perfect mixture of 2 mols of H2 and one mol of O2, but be warned, you'll get some chlorine X( in this setup!

[photozz]

technically, both bolts are connected to the negative ground. I think you get o2 off the negative, and Hydrogen off the positive, which would be the minty tin. I could be wrong..