Another Electro etching project

The Wife wanted a name plate for her desk but wanted something different that the engraved brass plate everyone else in her office has.  I found some laser and waterjet cut ones i liked but she didn't care for them.  i saw Keith's thread on making the nameplate for his amp and tried that.  I started with 1/8 Alum. from the hardware store, some electrical tape and a vinyl decal for her name. The The other metal is a spray gun wrench, somehow I have a few of these and no real use for them. 

A cookie tote filled with salt water and we hit our first snag.  My battery charger (pictured) won't work unless there is a battery hooked into it.  Stupid Harbor Freight safety gizmo.  I was able to borrow an older one from my father that didn't care if it was hooked to a battery, scrap metal, or a small child.  

Lots of fizz.  Of course I hooked it up backwards so for the first half hour nothing happened.

I didn't take pics of the base for some reason but it was cut, folded and welded from a piece of 16 gauge steel and painted with a 50s looking shade of green to match the her office which was not touched since the state opened it.  

That is super cool! How long did it take and how much material does it remove? It looks like the relief around her name is about 2mm deep. 

That's awesome. 

I left it for about three hours and it is a little less than 2mm deep. 

I was trying to figure out how you used your food processor to power the process for a moment there. 

Electro etching is something I should try at somepoint. I'm just not sure what I'd do it on.

In reply to Wally :

That looks great.

Nice! Glad to see it worked out for you! It looks just right against that green and it'll fit perfectly into a 1950's office. Just the right aesthetic. I keep planning to use this to make a custom car badge.

You're a braver man than I, I can't walk out of the room when it's bubbling away. Of course, I'm assuming you didn't sit there and watch it for three hours, maybe you did.

Looks like you had some of the same deep cutting along long edges that I did. It's weird. I had one engineer suggest that was because of poor fluid circulation, and adding an aquarium pump did help there but not completely solve it.

For those who want to see my experiments with this: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/electro-etching/131298/page1/

The0retical said:

I was trying to figure out how you used your food processor to power the process for a moment there.

Kitchenaids can do anything!!

Wally: That looks great! I hope your wife enjoys it.

I need to do some of this. I even borrowed a vinyl cutter and have the aluminum and all ready to go. Just need to get my mr2 on the road before I get sidetracked.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Her office was lightly used and I suspect locked up for a long time and has been preserved like a time capsule. She likes the retro look so I cleaned up the desk and cabinets so everything worked smooth and picked up some old desk accessories from ebay so aside from the computer it looks correct.  I just found an old Philco radio that I'm going to try and put a Bluetooth speaker kit into. 

In reply to dculberson :

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a generator attachment for the Kitchenaid.  There was a show on HBO where they were at an adult toy convention and it made me a bit uncomfortable making cookies for a while.  

I left it running unattended for most of the time once I was fairly certain it wasn't going to bubble over or short out. If it ruined that God awful counter I wouldn't have minded much.

Cool project. I've been looking for a cool name plate idea for my desk and I'm thinking this fits the bill.

In reply to Wally :

I love the font you used for this, do you recall which one it was?

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

I should have the receipt at home to check. I ordered it from a vinyl sign place on eBay.

The font is number 519 on the chart.  I don't know what it's called.

In reply to Wally :

Cool, thanks Wally! 

I think it's Freight Neo.

https://typekit.com/fonts/freight-neo

Wally said:

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a generator attachment for the Kitchenaid.  There was a show on HBO where they were at an adult toy convention and it made me a bit uncomfortable making cookies for a while.  

 

I can always depend on you for a good laugh Wally.  Thanks