Home Brew Etcher Completed and Operational

[Walt-]

Hello All

I finally got my home brew etcher built and working. I bought the stencils from Ernie. This is my second knife I made. I am very pleased with the outcome. I know more people than not believe the makers name should be on the knife however, for me, this works. Any and all comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Icho]

Looks good. I just recently made mine also and am very happy with it. What fluid are you using. I have just been using water with some table salt in it.

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by Icho

Looks good. I just recently made mine also and am very happy with it. What fluid are you using. I have just been using water with some table salt in it.

Thanks - I am also using water with table salt. It seems to be working ok.

[Fulmaduro]

Walt, I really like your maker's mark and how it looks on the blade. I am in need of an etcher myself, but am not good with anything electronic and fabricating electronic devices. If I saw a really good tutorial or somebody put up a really complete parts list and location/price paid sort of thing along with a comprehensive video tutorial that might make me want to venture this route.

I have tried to wade through posts on homemade etchers and they are always over my head when it comes to ohms, watts and volts, etc. Is it not just as easy to use a auto battery charger and salt water/ q-tip than build your own unit? Sorry if this has been covered before but I am just not forming the mental picture when I read posts and descriptions of said homemade etchers. Thanks for any input, and great looking knives to boot also!

Tony Z

[piggy]

Hey Walt u did an awesome job! If it is not to much to ask can u post a pic of the inside box and of ur handmarker? I am curious how the capacitors look. I didn't use them but I did add a couple of heat sinks.

[combs6136]

Walt, Great job on the etcher...............carl

[Icho]

I am curious to see how much better the real stuff is over water and salt. I haven't found any locally yet and they don't ship from US to Canada. I guess I will just have to look a bit harder.

For my home made etcher I just used those square dc and an ac power supplies that come with things like phones. If I wasn't so impatient when I was making mine I probably could have found old ones laying around at home.

[piggy]

Fulmaduro:
There's a lot of etcher stuff out there, not all of the instructions are safe. Here is the one I used, Ernie has a good tutorial but he adds some extra parts, he also answers questions.

http://www.logiudicecustomknives.com...er/index.shtml

You can save money if u scrounge around for a box and maybe switches. U can also get switches on E-bay

Be safe, if u make one

u can also buy one already made

[Ray Rogers]

Fulmaduro,

I definitely would not use an auto battery. They have far too much amperage. That means instead of etching your logo you would probably end up arc welding it!

There are many online instructional things for these etchers but, mostly, if you're not an electronics person and already have some parts around to scrounge it literally costs as much to build one as to buy one. An Etch-O-Matic currently costs about $85 new and you can often find them used on eBay. If you have to buy all the parts, and if you do a nice job on building an etcher, you'll probably spend about $100 on parts. So, if you're seriously into building your own tools then that price is OK but if you're more interested in just being able to etch your blade then suck it up and go buy an Etch-O-Matic ...

[Fulmaduro]

Piggy and Ray, thanks for your replies! I liked the tutorial Piggy but still find it intimidating. I like Ray's suggestion of just buying an Etch-o-matic. Off to Ebay I go!

Tony Z

[piggy]

Ray is right. I have seen people use cell phone chargers taped together, car batteries and a bunch of other very unsafe how to. If u have no back ground for any electronics it can be confusing, confusing we can help u with, unsafe is something else.

I built one a few months ago and pd about $60 I didn't keep very good track of the cost. I still need stencils. The etch-o-matic starter kit is $79.95, that might be the one Ray uses

That's a good price if I hadn't built mine this is the one I would of bought.

http://www.etch-o-matic.com/eom.htm

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by Fulmaduro

Walt, I really like your maker's mark and how it looks on the blade. I am in need of an etcher myself, but am not good with anything electronic and fabricating electronic devices. If I saw a really good tutorial or somebody put up a really complete parts list and location/price paid sort of thing along with a comprehensive video tutorial that might make me want to venture this route.

I have tried to wade through posts on homemade etchers and they are always over my head when it comes to ohms, watts and volts, etc. Is it not just as easy to use a auto battery charger and salt water/ q-tip than build your own unit? Sorry if this has been covered before but I am just not forming the mental picture when I read posts and descriptions of said homemade etchers. Thanks for any input, and great looking knives to boot also!

Tony Z

Hello Tony, You could get the 12 volt direct current from a battery charger / power supply that would etch but you would also need 12 volts alternating current that blackens the etching. For whatever its worth my recommendation would be to just buy an etcher. For the money its probably not worth the learning curve and danger with messing around with 120 VAC, (house electricity)

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by combs6136

Walt, Great job on the etcher...............carl

Thanks Carl

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by piggy

Hey Walt u did an awesome job! If it is not to much to ask can u post a pic of the inside box and of ur handmarker? I am curious how the capacitors look. I didn't use them but I did add a couple of heat sinks.

The next time I have the etcher open I will try to remember to take a pic. The capacitor is about an inch high and an inch and a half in diamater. It has a positive and negative lead on one side. Its not much to look at.

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

Fulmaduro,

I definitely would not use an auto battery. They have far too much amperage. That means instead of etching your logo you would probably end up arc welding it!

There are many online instructional things for these etchers but, mostly, if you're not an electronics person and already have some parts around to scrounge it literally costs as much to build one as to buy one. An Etch-O-Matic currently costs about $85 new and you can often find them used on eBay. If you have to buy all the parts, and if you do a nice job on building an etcher, you'll probably spend about $100 on parts. So, if you're seriously into building your own tools then that price is OK but if you're more interested in just being able to etch your blade then suck it up and go buy an Etch-O-Matic ...

Being a professional "electronics" guy I can say that Ray is dead on right with this post.