Electrolytic Etcher Etched Instrument Panel

As promised, here is a picture of the completed Electrolytic Etcher

Here are the links to the previous articles that make up this project.

• Musings
• Musings - Part 1
• Musings - Part 2
• Etcher Design
• Etcher Design - Part 1
• Etcher Design - Part 2
• Etcher Design - Part 3
• Etcher Design - Part 4
• Panel Design
• Panel Design- Part 1
• Panel Design - Part 2
• Panel Design - Part 3

I still plan to make a timber box for the etcher and use the brass instrument panel on that. I hope that I can make the box out of some nice species timber, like rosewood or similar, something with a warm red tone.

The etcher seems to work fairly well … maybe I’ll change the power supply to 9V rather than the present 6.8V. That should improve the etch time.

To recap, the etcher is simply a power supply with the positive supply regulated by a 5KΩ potentiometer. The electrical current then passes through the banana plug sockets into the work-piece while it is suspended in a saline solution. This, effectively, oxidises the exposed brass, etching it away. The etcher has a power indicator (LED) and an on/off switch. But it is a very basic circuit (see Musings – Part 2 for the circuit design).

I’ll probably rub some black shoe polish into the panel to improve its appearance. That’s it for the Electrolytic Etcher. If you’ve read this far, thanks for your patience.