Etching brass plates

Step 12 Attach to the object of your choice

Final step - glue it on! I used superglue, as it's quite good at sticking mixed materials (in this case, metal to plastic) and can be removed with the appropriate solvent. I'd recommend using the masking tape as before to allow you to align the plate first, flip it up so that you can spread the superglue and then flip it back to stick it correctly in position - superglue dries really quickly!

Comments

[kommodore]

Wow, that's very cool, it etch the hell out of the brass, very deep.

I like it! congrats, i think i will try it.

[kirbyswarpstar]

pretty cool

[pollo del mar]

I recently used a very similar technique to this to etch a number of brass medallions. However, I wanted to point out that there is a nice complementary Instructable entitled "Stop Using Ferric Chloride" here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-using-Ferric-Chloride-etchant!--A-better-etc/

I used the solution detailed in that article to etch over 100 brass medallions. I was able to etch between 10-15 1.25" brass circles with a batch that was 4 cups hydrogen peroxide and 2 cups muriatic acid before I had to mix a new batch. The etching took about 45 minutes to etch to a depth of about 1/32" and was relatively non toxic.

I used a small (5 gallon) plastic fish tank with a light-weight fish tank air pump to do the etching in and keep the solution agitiated.

[gotang]

This has been covered previously in another comment. While the mixture is relatively non-toxic (though ferric chloride is actually also pretty non-toxic - it is used in water treatment), it is very corrosive. I personally feel more comfortable handling FeCl3 than an HCl/H2O2 mixture. Personal preference really.

[T2Pogi]

I read in an article that Adding baking soda to the ferric chloride solution will break it down into water, iron, etc. you can pick up or strain the solids out and dispose of the water.

[gotang]

Yes, that is correct. Baking soda will do the exact same thing that the washing soda that I suggested will. All you are really doing is neutralising the solution and precipitating out the copper. Be aware though that the solid produced, therefore, contains the copper and so you should dispose of it properly and not just put it into the bin!