Ball Hopper Monitor Castings

[Jasonb]

You can get a reasonable look of filled in etch with self printd waterslide transfers, not the best old photo



Or find someone with CNC



Laser head on your 3D printer may also work

[vtsteam]

I tried the blue laser print resist sheets, and the first one jammed up my laser printer nearly destroying it. I had to take it apart to clear the jam -- not recommended. Then I tried multiple different photo resist printing and dry film methods. What finally worked was simply having Staples print the artwork transparencies. I sent it to them as files over the net, and picked up the prints the next morning. That cost $2! These transparencies worked perfectly with dry film resist exposed to UV, and then etched in ferric chloride.

I'll never try printing the artwork again at home.

[CI]

Or find someone with CNC

I know the etching method would be easier, but I like the idea of CNC'ing a nameplate.
I know a guy who does CNC work, but he lives across the pond.   

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[CI]

I tried the blue laser print resist sheets, and the first one jammed up my laser printer nearly destroying it. I had to take it apart to clear the jam -- not recommended. Then I tried multiple different photo resist printing and dry film methods. What finally worked was simply having Staples print the artwork transparencies. I sent it to them as files over the net, and picked up the prints the next morning. That cost $2! These transparencies worked perfectly with dry film resist exposed to UV, and then etched in ferric chloride.

I'll never try printing the artwork again at home.

I am itching to learn the etching method, but I have learn from past projects that if I start branching out on tangents, this engine will never get completed.
The code word on the build is FOCUS.
I will come back to the nameplate at the end.
The etching thing is a cool technology.
Perhaps I can rope a member here into etching one for me.

.

[vtsteam]

I think the range of method options and the difficulty in any one method depend on how fine the finest lines are on the scale of the plate a person wants to make. Really small scale plates with really fine lines become very difficult, and I think that etching is probably the only way to do that. But it too can be problematic if there are both fine lines and big areas to etch away on the same plate. For that reason, the plate Dave Otto shows earlier in this thread is amazing to me! Hats off for that one. Beautiful! 

I have one more plate I'd like to etch for my lathe, not essential for it, but something I'd just like to have on it. And then I'm probably done forever with that process. Though I like the result, when it works, I don't enjoy doing it. I feel like when it works, at my hands, a good result is largely accidental.

[steam guy willy]

Hi 50 years ago I made etched plates using ferric chloride  FeCl3  on brass ,using Letrasett. letters and numbers ..for really small numbers I used all the small print from the bottom of the letrasett sheets!! this was one I made for someone ...the types of brass and copper gave different textures  I learnt this as I was an electronics engineer and also made PCB's  Printed Circuit Boards.

Willy

[crueby]

I've  used both the acid metod and the electro etch methods, much prefer the electro method since no nasty acids. Both ways used the blue transfer paper that were printed then ironed on. Both gave equivalent  results, nice fine text, though you can't  go too deep or it undercuts the mask. Was great for small plates with fine text. For larger and deeper, cnc worked better.

[vtsteam]

Nice, Willy!