Make your own Embossed Business Cards using Acid Etching

Step 8 Pressure pushing down on me. Pressing down on you no man ask for.

A quick scrub with a Brillo pad will get off the remaining copper scum and ink from your plate. Muriatic acid (diluted hydrochloric acid) does a very good job of cleaning metals. If your plate starts getting a bit green, and the verdigris stains your paper, just give it a thorough wipe with the acid solution. You can pick the stuff up at Home Depot, near the pool supplies.

Now, all that's left to do is assemble the parts, and clamp. Here's where I think I should have gone differently. I was told by a printmaker that embossed patterns hold better if they are done while the paper is damp. So, I spritzed the pages before clamping them. However, this seemed to warp the pages. After some more experiments, I decided to hang the wetting, and just print one dry, and it seemed to come out fine, and without distortion, but didn't have time to do more tests. My original plan was to emboss the paper, and then run it through a printer. The distorted pages failed to spool properly, and therefore were misprinted. In the future, I think I'll try printing the images first, and then embossing them.

I clamped the pages for a half hour each, with several sheets of paper behind them to help squeeze the pattern into the page.

Comments

[zohair]

Won't the Brillo pad ruin the etch? You can also remove the ink using regular nail-polish remover. Its got acetone though so use gloves and try not to inhale. You could also use spirit, but I haven't tried it.

[bofthem]

(removed by author or community request)

[bofthem]

Sorry... anyway... The little green Scotch Brite pads are great. They're also great for cleaning machined parts. Sorry for deleting that one. Something odd happened with the reply script.

[zohair]

haha! Anyway great instructable man. Hope you post pics of the results too sometime. :)

[zohair]

hmmm. I'll try it out.