Salt Water Etch

This a a Salt water etching tank that I'm using to etch a steel box made from 3/16" plate. I used Rubber cement to protect the areas I didn't want to erode away.

The salt increases the electrical conductivity of the water. (I've used baking soda in the past, but I was out so I tried out Salt and it works great)

The positive and negative leads from a car batter charger are attached to two steel plates. The plate the positive lead is attached to will corrode quickly. By adjusting the spacing between the plates in the tank you can vary the amperage on the charger: too close and you'll fry the charger, too far and it will take forever. I keep mine around 10amps; this is why you want an Amp meter on your charger.

I did selectively protect some areas of the metal being rusted by coating it with rubber cement. Paint works too but nail polish works better.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Saltwater
• etching
• Metal
• Art
• Steel
• Etching

[themadscientest]

dude skim the iron oxide off and mix with aluminium powder and burn things

[chrisimpala1982]

you should do a start to finish vid on a project so we can see how its done.

[mumpump]

Hillbilly etching 101!

[Films4You]

I tancy a cup of tea, can you spare some... LOL

[strantor]

this is cool, do you think I could etch my name onto a knife blade by coating the blade with rubber cement, then scratching away my name in the cement and using the blade as a cthode in the same manner as you did?

[M3T4X1S]

forgive my stupidaty but is there any chance of u doing a how to video on this.. like what mettals to use and what voltagw for what size and how to apply the rubber cement... would realy appreciat it.. thanks