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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 12-19-2005, 09:18 AM
wineland wineland is offline
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Problems with Home build Etching machine

Hello,
I have built a etching machine using the plans from the workshop and if I etch some soft steel it will do fine. When I try to etch some hardened steel it will burn the stencil before it marks the steel. I tried using different electrolytes and am using the stencil that you type or write on. My friend has a personalizer plus and it will mark one great. Any help would be wonderfull.
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  #2  
Old 12-19-2005, 12:57 PM
Frank Niro Frank Niro is offline
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It may be that you are using too much voltage. Frank


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  #3  
Old 12-19-2005, 02:45 PM
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oljoe oljoe is offline
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I haven?t tried the stencil material that you are talking about and without watching your procedure it difficult to determine what is causing your problem.

One thing that will burn up your stencils is letting the etcher sit on the stencil to long.

Apply the etcher pad on the stencil for 2 seconds, lift for 2 seconds and repeat for 10 to 20 times. The more times you apply the pad the deeper the etch will be.

Joe


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  #4  
Old 12-19-2005, 03:05 PM
wineland wineland is offline
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I tried the 2seconds on and off but it still burns the stencil. I think it has too much power and after looking at the unit my friend has I am going to try to get a switch to regulate the power output. His has a rotary switch that works like a volume switch on a radio.. the more you turn it the higher the power.

Richard
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  #5  
Old 12-19-2005, 08:11 PM
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Dragon cutlery Dragon cutlery is offline
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get a muti tester and check his voltage and amps that he gets from his then try to math them on your and tell me cuzz im having the same problum with my home made i used all the right part numbers and all but it burns up the stensils im using photo stensils i even droped the voltage coming of the transformer but it ends up that im geting almost 15 amps out of a .3 amp transformer and i dont know whats optimal


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  #6  
Old 12-20-2005, 01:11 PM
Terry_Dodson Terry_Dodson is offline
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Are you using the AC or the DC side to do the marking? DC etches the blade and AC makes it black. If the DC isnt etching, try swapping leads, that is what i had to do on mine, then it etched great. Oh and i am using salt water as my electolyte.
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  #7  
Old 12-20-2005, 09:31 PM
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i have better luck with salt water as well but it can burn on ether ac or dc and i dont get the nice deep etch that i have seen and that i like


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  #8  
Old 12-20-2005, 09:35 PM
Terry_Dodson Terry_Dodson is offline
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Are you dabbing the pad (i use white shop towels doubled over my copper pad) til it is almost dry? If it is too damp it messes up the etch and can pop the fuse in the etcher.
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  #9  
Old 12-20-2005, 09:40 PM
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Dragon cutlery Dragon cutlery is offline
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yah my only problum is the stencil gets eaten up like kaowool with flux do you have and idea what the optimal volts and amps out put is for boths sides of the etcher? or what yours is out puting in ac and dc modes if i know that i can rebuild it to thoes specks and try agen (i was stupid when i built mine i should of just bought transformers rated to the volts amps i needed rather than folow the plans to the tee)

i think the rectifier is adding amps some how i dont think im suposed to have 15 on the dc side


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  #10  
Old 12-20-2005, 09:46 PM
Terry_Dodson Terry_Dodson is offline
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I am not sure what the voltages are supposed to be. I made mine using a 12 volt AC 1 amp transformer, a dual pole dual throw switch and full wave rectifier. So i shouldn't have more than 12 volts on either setting.
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  #11  
Old 12-20-2005, 10:10 PM
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whats the out put amps both sides?


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  #12  
Old 12-20-2005, 10:20 PM
Terry_Dodson Terry_Dodson is offline
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unfortunately i dont have a meter to check with. The transformer was an AC power adapter for something that i scavanged, just cut the end off to get my 12 volts AC, run thru the DPDT switch and rectifier for the DC. The switch switches it from AC to DC.
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  #13  
Old 12-20-2005, 10:20 PM
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OK, I think I see what might be your problem Dragon. Power=Volts x Current. You will lose some in the transformer, but lets look at your typical system. 115 Volts x 20 Amps = 2300 watts. So if your transformer steps this down to 20V you could potentially have 2300W/20V = 115 Amps. So even if you loose 50% to the transformer and rectifier, you would still have the ability to drive about 57 Amps through the system. This will depend on the electrolyte, etc, but you are trying to get that as good as you can.

Be careful. It would be interesting to see what you have, but that is the theory. But that would explain how it would appear the rectifier is adding amps.

OK, just read through the rest of your post. If you have .3 Amp transformer, at 120V then you can produce 336 W. If you have 15A on the far side, that is approx 22.4V. Is this close to what you where aiming for. With 75% loss, you would be at 16.8V. My question is, is your DC output voltage between 15V and 20V?

Hope this helps,
--Carl


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  #14  
Old 12-20-2005, 10:27 PM
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Terry,

If it was one of the wall wart things, your output is probably 12V, 1A max.

--Carl


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  #15  
Old 12-20-2005, 10:59 PM
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just checked it 15 amps 13 volts on dc


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