On Sun, 09 Jan 2011 02:31:36 -0000, you wrote:
>I'm sure this has come up before, but I'd like to build a cheap etching tank and wanted to get some advice before I actually do it.
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>I was thinking of buying a good sized sheet of fairly thin acrylic from Lowes or Home Depot, cutting it up into two big pieces for the front and back of the tank, two tall but narrow pieces for the sides, and then gluing it all together with some of that plastic weld stuff.
Thin plastic is not all that good. Plastic weld may or may not work,
I don't know. Depends on what you do. You'll need to have something
that withstands hydrochloric acid and at 120 or so degrees, not that
it will get that hot. I'd plan for it, though, just because.
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>The idea is that the tank would be really narrow (maybe 0.2") so it wouldn't take much etchant to fill it up.
If you use Hydrogen peroxide and Hydrochloric acid, you don't need to
economize on etchant, it's cheap.
>I was also thinking of getting one of those "air bubble devices" (I don't know what they're actually called!) from a petstore and gluing it to the bottom of the tank with the end of the hose sealed off and a bunch of small holes poked in it to agitate the etchant.
You'd be better off using a sealed aquarium air tube with little holes
drilled in it. The glue deteriorates in Ferric Chloride after a bit,
and you're left with a little pile of sand.
>It might also be possible to put a lid on the tank and putting the air intake on the bubbler and putting it inside the tank so that the fumes aren't constantly being expelled from the tank.
Might eat the pump....
I etch outside, move the cars out of the way, etc.
I also use a relatively cheap cereal container (plastic), which has
never had a problem with the etchant, either variety.
Harvey
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>What are your thoughts?
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