How To Metal Etch // Easy Metal Etching Using Electricity and Rust Removal

hey everyone blake here from bm sculptures today i'm going to teach you everything you need to know about how to metal etch any kind of steel this is extremely easy to do let's get right into it you're going to need a set of alligator clips 9 volt battery q-tips regular table salt and vinyl sticker the first thing you want to do is clean the metal surface that you're planning on etching here i'm just using some acetone to clean off the surface next up you want to cut out your design in the vinyl sticker i'm using a cricut cutter but if you don't have one do not worry i will show you later on in this video exactly how to do this by hand make sure there's no loose edges and everything is sticking firmly to the metal surface next up you're going to add a regular old table salt to a small cup of water i then take the 9 volt battery and connect the leads red to positive and black to negative now before we start etching it's imperative that you wear a mask for organic vapors and do the etching in a well ventilated area now let's get to some etching attach the positive lead to somewhere on your metal surface here i used electrical tape to hold it on top of the metal surface dip your q-tip into the salt water and then take your negative lead and attach it to the q-tip slowly scrub the exposed metal design you should hear and see bubbles coming from the q-tip immediately after a couple of minutes you're going to get this gunk building up on the surface take a paper towel and wipe it off you're going to repeat this process until you begin to see and feel the surface being etched i actually ran out of q-tips so i just switched to a cotton swab with that being said be sure to change out your q-tips once they get dirty once you're happy with your depth of etch take off the vinyl for this small logo i etch this for around 20 minutes once all the vinyl is off clean off the surface with some water and then be sure to add some oil for rest prevention links for this oil and everything else i used in this etch in the description and there you have it the cotton swab metal etching technique this is super easy super cheap anyone can do and i loved how this little logo turned out i'm pretty pumped about it all right let's get to my favorite method of metal etching that is the full submersion method and that uses a car battery charger but here's the kicker it has to be an old battery charger go search craigslist facebook marketplace go to a flea market find an old battery charger all new battery chargers have a smart sensor that only works when current is received this means you can't use them unless the lead is actually attached to a battery the only alternative i know is by using a larger battery source i've put a link in the description of this battery right here and you can also use a car battery or something that's similar in size but use with caution because this method will drain the battery quickly okay for this full submersion technique you're going to need the power source you're going to need some table salt a vinyl sticker a plastic bucket a piece of scrap metal it can be any kind of metal a thin metal wire to basically hold the metal inside the bucket and then the metal you plan to etch and just like the first part you're going to clean the metal surface using some acetone now i'm going to use my cricut cutter to cut out my design and very shortly here i'll show you how to do it without one of these machines so here's how i first started all of my vinyl cutouts i would print out the design then using a pencil i would build up a thick layer on the back side of graphite to basically act as a transfer paper since i didn't have transfer paper and i was too lazy to go to the store i then used white vinyl already attached to the metal and transferred over the design just by drawing over the pattern on top of the printed paper and you guessed it now take an x-acto knife and cut out the entire pattern by hand this will take some time it's a lot of details but you know what you can get the exact same quality metal etch if you take your time and do a good job okay back to the qriket cutter i'm going to attach the vinyl sticker and then also cover up all the saw teeth so they don't become etched because you don't want to lose the integrity of any functional pieces of the metal next attach the thin metal wire to somewhere on your piece i'm going to fill the bucket up here with water just high enough to where the saw blade is fully submerged under the water then i'm going to go ahead and add my table salt and if i were to take a guess here maybe half a cup of salt here stir up your salt water concoction here and then place the sacrificial metal piece and the saw blade on opposite sides of the bucket attach the negative lead to the sacrificial metal wire and then the positive lead to the saw blade wire plug in your battery charger and set the desired amperage i like setting mine to around 10 amps as soon as you plug it in you should see bubbles coming out of the sacrificial piece of metal which is attached to the negative lead i check my etch around every 10 minutes or so just to see how it's working and if i like it if i want to take it off you're going to see tons of bubbles and gunk coming up over time be sure to turn off the car battery charger every time you check about halfway through etching i actually flip my metal piece around because both sides kind of etch at different rates for this edge i had this saw blade in the water for around 30 minutes once you think your etch is done go throw it in some water and scrub it down okay before you take off the vinyl i have one more trick for you if you want an even deeper looking etch pick up this perma blue i'll put the link up here in the description on this one i'm only going to do one side so you can see the difference with the perm of a blue and without the permit blue spread the perma blue evenly and let it sit for roughly one to two minutes or so before scrubbing it off back in the water now to the moment we've all been waiting for remove all the vinyl and reveal your etch be sure to clean the metal and then use some oil for rust prevention as soon as you're done here's the perma blue side which is slightly darker than just the raw metal edge side so that perma blue you can see it just gives it a little bit of a darker deeper looking edge and just like that we are done i hope you learned something from this video if you liked it please give me a thumbs up and good luck to you on your next metal etching project you

Channel: BM Sculptures

Views: 620,466

Keywords: metal, etching, electro, electro metal etching, metal etching, metalworking, fabricating, knife, making, knifemaking, forging, axe, restoration, restoring, rusty, restore, welding, diresta, how to, easy, simple, diy, blake, mcfarland, making it, engrave, engraving, battery, electric, electrical, current, car battery, charger, woodworking, sculpting, swords, knives, carving, patina, blackening, metal art, art, sculpture, weld, rust, etch, metaletch, tool, rusty tool

Id: 99PPLqZ3iUI

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BMsculptures]

In this video I share 2 simple ways how to metal etch using electricity. I use these same techniques on every metal restoration / modification project. This is so easily done and can substitute metal engraving or Rust Removal with very minimal work. I have everything you will need to get started!