Acid Etching advise please?

[Gert du Preez]

Do you want to etch glass or brass / copper?

For brass / copper you need Ferric Chloride. I get it as granules from my local industrial chemicals supplier. Be careful – once dissolved in water, it will stain your clothes permanently!!

For glass, buy the etch cream from hobby and craft shops, or get some hydrofluoric acid from the Industrial Chemical Suppliers. (NOT recomended.)

Sodium Hydroxide is used to etch Aluminium ( Sorry, I said earlier it is used for glass. I blame this on the Pub Luch I had this afternoon!) It works a treat If you put a vinyl mask on anodised alu, and dissolve the anodising. It creates Hydrogen as a side product, but in such small quantitie you need not worry.

[Graeme Harrold]

Maplin and RS both do the Ferric Chloride in packs ready to mix.

[Andrew Bennett]

I have never used hydrofluoric acid, maybe at school.
I hear that you need to wear breathing equipment to use it, is that true or an old wives tale?

[Gert du Preez]

Andrew,

You may well be right.

Here in the darkest corners of Africa we are not that big on H&S……

I usually do the etching jobs on Saturdays when the shop is closed. When using Ferric Chloride, I heat the solution over some very dubious burners made of old condensed milk tins. Also, nobody around to suffer mental anguish if (when?) I start screaming 😮

You should wear full face mask, apron and repirator when working with chemicals, even "harmless" ones. And be aware of the basics. Sometimes things can react in strange ways, becoming boiling hot etc.

Thats why I wear shorts and sandals, and keep a quart of lager handy if things go wrong. I’d face dicipliniary hearings my first week if I had to work in the EU 😳

[Robert Lambie]

If you want to do this easily and just to try move into, you might want to look at Etchall cream.

quick rundown on how it works.

cut a stencil design in cheap stencil vinyl. stick it to glass, smear on the cream. leave it a set time. scrape the paste back off and put backnin bottle.
rinse the glass and the design will have been etched on the surface of the glassware.

this has been around for about 10 years and i used it back in the day i used to make stained glass signage and the like… . i forget the UK distributor for it but should be easily googled.
http://www.etchall.com/

hope this helps some…