New method for etching brass dials - great detail! 

After watching the first video: " that's really neat, let's see what else he's done" After watching several videos "my envy is as endless as his talent and tool collection"

The music should be background...its kind of deafening in between talking points.. but nice job on the instruction!

Kudos to rub’n brite, thats how you do business and keep customers. Also glad your dog was ok

Good Lord, i love this account. You’re quickly becoming a favorite, right up among This Old Tony and Clickspring. Quality content, beautiful manufacturing, and elegant, timeless designs. You’re an inspiration for sure

Your vid popped up while watching the latest Clickspring vid. Great stuff! Instantly subbed! I appreciate the hands on supplemented with the historical context.

How in the world do you make literally every word so incredibly interesting? You are the most incredible person of the modern age, and I am not exaggerating much on that at all.

For anyone wanting to get some Ferric chloride, you can make it very cheaply... Get some steel wool (20g), 100ml of hydrochloric acid, 37% (any pool supply), and some 3% hydrogen peroxide. Dissolve the steel wool in the acid (takes an hour or so), then add some hydrogen peroxide. And there ya go... Super cheap and readily available. Nurd Rage has an excellent video on how to do this, btw.

In the 1970s and1980s I used to etch brass and copper and I used my own mixture of Chromic and Sulfuric acids and made photoresist masks. I heated the etching bath to 125° F. and agitated the bath so as to bring fresh etchant to the surface. The Chromic acid acted as a banking agent so my final project would NOT be undercut; I could keep fine line definition. I tried ferric chloride but, it didn't work for me and I always kept undercutting. Nice channel.

Thanks for sharing this info! Especially the background at the end! It's hard sometimes to know the value of a technique until you see the downside(s) of the alternatives!

I use a different method for separating the laser tape... take 2 squares of tape (I like Scotch 3650 “Long Lasting” Packaging tape for this), stick one piece to a corner on the _”back”_ (tape) side and while holding it, place t’other piece onto the _”front”_ (film) side. The key is to not let them stick together (I’ll sometimes fold the back piece onto itself to hide the adhesive side), but once you have tape on both sides when you pull them apart the film comes with it :)

This is awesome, thank you for making this video. I am listowner of homebrewpcbs on Groups.io. I'm not surprised toner transfer didn't work well. It doesn't do well with large area coverage and does have a problem with holes due to the printing patterns, as you found out. With narrow traces, people are using roll laminators. It must be one with a "Foil" setting, that is the temperature that will melt toner. Then either running it through a half-dozen times, or modifying it so it runs much more slowly. Since it is melting the toner and squishing it down, it tends to fill in pinholes, but it also tends to widen the traces, or in your case it would narrow the etchable areas. What you've come up with is fantastic. I'm thinking this should work with those low power solid state lasers that can be added to a small CNC. Muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide are not ready the moment you mix them. The proper process is to add copper, to turn it into cupric chloride. It should be a nice emerald green color. It can then be renewed with either more hydrogen peroxide, or with a bubbler. Cupric chloride etches MUCH faster than muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide. This page goes into quite a lot of detail of how to make and maintain cupric chloride. home.exetel.com.au/adam.seychell/PCB/etching_CuCl/index.html It is funny, I have had terrible experiences with ferric chloride. Etch so slow, it gets under the resist. Parts of the board etched through to the fiberglass substrate while large areas are only half etched. Painfully slow etching even when I heat it. I do plan on trying ferric chloride again, as it certainly is working well for you on brass. Perhaps cupric chloride just doesn't work well on brass.

Very nice. I’ve been thinking about getting a laser cutter, but I haven’t decided how much power I need yet. Ferric chloride is the standard etchant for making circuit boards. I started doing that 55 years ago.

I am enjoying all your videos. I was a tool&die maker back before I was retired and your videos I am finding very interesting. I always wondered how many possible variations Jo-blocks could make. I watched the video in which you made a worm gear and that totally fascinated and which I had never considered. WOW Keep the vids coming I am enjoying them all. Steve

HOkay . . . . I am an artist. I principally work in jewelry scale. But I do far more than that, including professional woodworking and machining. But the arts I am known best for are jewelry arts. I do lapidary, silver and goldsmithing, including modeling waxes and casting, glass fusion, and enameling. And that is what I want to talk about. Enameling. I do a variety of enameling techniques, and one of them is champlevé enameling. Champlevé is engraving or etching a grove into a piece of metal, usually copper but gold and silver work also, then filling the incised design with glass. I don't engrave, way too much skill required. But I do etch. I like to do petroglyphs that I photograph and photoshop into line drawings. But I will use royalty free art when I can not access the original site. Like I said, I photoshop the original artwork into line drawing artwork. This then gets laser printed onto PnP paper. PnP is "press 'n peel". You have to have the right laser printer (an older one) for this material to work. You print your design (in negative) onto the PnP paper on the dull blue side. After printing you cut out the section you are going to etch and using heat (a household iron in my care) you heat and press the black and dull blue side down onto your copper. Once cool, you peel off the shiny acetate and that leaves you with an acid resist. Mask the backside and edges. Then etch with Ferric Chloride (I go through gallons literally). Once the etch is done, remove the masking and remove the resist with acetone. Cut your work to finish size, drill all required holes, etc.. Then you need your glass. I use a 325 grit Thompson enamel in the 1000 series that I buy direct from Thompson Enamel. 325 grit is a custom grind that they only make when ordered. 2 ounces is around $15-20 and will last a long time. The default grind in 80 grit. But 325 grit is finer and works far better. Mix some of the enamel powder with distilled water into a thick paste and work the paste into the groves you want to fill. You can use any color you like, Thompson has about 80-90 series 1000 enamels to choose from. And once kind of dry, scarp off the excess as well as you can. There are also special glues you can use instead of water, but water is fine. Thompson sells a product called A-1 I believe that is great. Then heat your piece in a kiln to roughly 1400-1450 degree F. The larger the piece, the longer the hold time. Normally I batch fire these pieces so that it takes about 15 minute for my work to come back up to temp in an already hot kiln and then soak for say 5 minutes. Remover your work from the kiln and allow to cool. Then polish your face as you have been doing. HOWEVER, you can not use brass. Or some bronzes for that matter. Glass, even small amounts, does not like zinc. And the glass will shatter and flake off on cooling. Enameling is usually done on pure copper, fine silver and fine gold to get the best quality work. However, alloys of gold, copper, and silver that only contain gold, copper, and silver will also work as well. No one usually enamels sterling silver (92.5% silver and 7.5% copper) because of the gray fire scale that develops under the surface of the sterling and has to be sanded out. Good luck, lover your work. Janet

great video ! btw.. if you use dupont photosensitive film laminated to the work piece with a regular office laminator it sticks really well. and the chemical for developing it is a washing soda and to remove it is a sodium hydroxide - that's a drain cleaner. and of course it's easier to get a UV lamp than to get a laser cutter.

It’s really good to see that proper engineering still takes place in the 21st century.

too much violin, needs more cowbell

When etching circuit boards with acid, I’d use a mount to keep the board sideways in the mix so bubbles wouldn’t stick, and would use a bubble stream to ensure uniform exposure.

When I was in the Marines, the go-to product for shining up brass was "Brasso".

The trick with the soap works excellent for polishing stainless steel, too. Nice job with those dials. I'll definitely watch your other videos too.

Bonus content was very impressive. You experimented with a lot of different methods before settling on this and the laser. Obviously this video conveys extremely valuable information.

As an ex metal polisher (not much of a claim to fame, I know) I must say the finish from that method is very impressive.

Who on earth gives superb content creators like you thumbs down, I can't see how! Love your work and fascinating angle on all things mechanical.

When applying any kind of film to a surface (like tape to a piece of metal, or tint to glass, or stickers to...anything) use an old plastic card, like a credit card or ID, just make sure the edge is nice and smooth, no nicks, snags, or odd geometry. Using orbital swiping motions, press the leading edge of the adhering front down with a slight bend in the card as you go. Bam, no bubbles, perfect bond! Muriatic acid is just Hydrochloric acid watered down to be used as a driveway cleaner. Mixing peroxide with it is a new one on me though😳..... Keep in mind Im just a recreational nerd, and dont regularly etch things, so..... I personally vote for the ferric chloride. Though that comes with its own issues, but much easier to mitigate. Also always keep some neutralizer near by, just in case (like a 2 liter bottle of basic solution (bicarb is usually a good bet, mixed into water) to quickly neutralize any incidental spills. better to have and not need than need and not have). Peroxide will out gas oxygen all on its own though, so eventually youre left with just water. And after you break the seal on the bottle, even if the lid is night and tight, itll still go flat eventually (when you get peroxide at the store for scrapes and such, get the small bottles, that way a big bottle is not wasted slowly going flat under the sink). HCl can be neutralized with sodium bicarb. The reaction produces CO2 H2O and NaCl, or table salt, which safely locks away the chlorine with its sodium buddy. 100% safe to dump down the drain. Just make sure its all good and neutralized. Add bicarb slowly until its stops fizzing, then add a bit more and stir. when it stops making reaction bubbles turn on the tap and down it goes! If you know the concentration and volume of the acid, you can look up a calculators online that will tell you about how much bicarb is needed to fully neutralize(over shoot it just to be sure. a light base is better than a light acid on pipes....usually....). I mean, I say 'about'....the same calculators are used for titration to determine the concentration of unknown acids, itll give you the exact molar mass needed to get the job done 1:1 😉

Very good info, although (me) being a regular old time machinist I kind of wonder why you didn't just use your lathe and mill to engrave your dials rather than etch them. I've made a ton of dials for various machines and a few clocks. You can make a graver any width you need, and use the lathe to index. If you have a dividing head, even better, but with the time you took trying to find out the best process, you could have made dividing plates for your lathe and done the dials that way. I don't mean this as a criticism. Just a machinist's way of doing it, plus you have the added bonus of the index/dividing plates to use on your lathe for future jobs. I like your channel, and have subscribed.

Ferric chloride has been used for etching printed circuit boards for decades - Radio Shack stores (in the 1970's) always had some bottles in stock. I've never heard of muriatic acid or hydrogen peroxide being used for etching the copper from PC boards. Plus, muriatic acid is pretty dangerous stuff compared to the others.

very detailed & precise, as one would expect from a master machinist. glad yer puppy was ok. EXCELLENT customer service.

Hi! I do some work in PCBs, which is similar to dial engraving. I don't use Ferric Chloride (too messy). I prefer a fresh mix of HCl and H2O2 (1 part muriatic / chloridric acid and 2 parts hydrogen peroxide). For a dial like yours, I would spray paint the whole dial (all sides) and use the laser to remove the paint, then etch There is another way to etch that I only tested to make shallow engraving, but requires no acid, for full metal parts - Electrolysis (water + salt and a battery charger or similar and an auto lamp in series to limit max current - start with low power lamp and increase as needed).

Anytime I see your videos, it is such a pleasure to see a master Machinist instruct those of us who do not have the skill as of yet. We are lucky to Live in this timeframe in history. It was boggles one's mind to think how this was done many , many years ago. It would have been much harder without the modern tools of today. It shows the ingenuity of the human Minds where the masters of yesteryear did things that were next to Impossible but did it anyway. Anytime you look at an old machine from the 15th 16th 17th whatever century , remember these masters of machinery wer ahead of their time. Without their ingenuity and perseverance, what we have today would not exist. That is the number one reason we should keep any and all machines, literature and most of all, knowledge of the past. Too many great inventions and machines have been scrapped only to get Pennies on the dollar. Thank goodness individuals like Mr. Ford who kept some his factories to show future Generations the machines and tooling necessary to produce automobiles. Many of those automobiles do not exist but the machines and tools exist. With the help of Thomas Edison , we have somewhat of a records of the past. Isn't technology lovely? Thank you once again for your video.

Very interesting video! Also, I'm sure we're all glad your dog turned out okay!

Etching and masking is very clever. But let down by the polishing. With a material like a marked up brass start with a DA sander (orbital) P240 grit then work your way down to P800. Then glue a piece of scotchbrite (purple) to a DA sanding disc and attach to DA. Buff with the SB until you have removed the finest of the P800 DA sanding marks. Now polish...preferably on a buffing wheel with the relevant polish, or roll your sleeves up and do it by hand. You will now be looking into a brass mirror.

This is so much better than just watching boring gifs :D

I was an engraver for a couple years, that laser tape is great. You can hit the corner with an upside down can of air to freeze it then peel it instead of doing the whole thing...edit: oh and a rubber squeegee for the bubbles. I made some crude pcb boards with sharpie and muriatic acid lol

For holding metal workpieces, some use super-glue (cyanoacrylate). It softens under heat, and so can be easily removed (and then cleaned with acetone). RU-vidr, Clickspring, uses this often.

Mate your videos are awsome , just found your channel today and have been absolutely entertained for the past 4 hours

Excellent video. That laser does a fantastic job. I can't imagine doing any better way.

Absolutely enjoyed this entire process!

Fantastic series, which I am currently working my way through - thank you. PS the music was fine :-)

What a great source of plastic - cutting boards. I never thought of that, brilliant.

Well,seeing as these are james watt repro dials,and he was a fellow scot(me),i'l impart some friendly scottish technical info ,i am an electronics technician,i make my own pcbs when i have to,i use a proper bubble etch tank that will agitate the ferric chloride etchant also it heats the etchant so the etch time for brass(i make audio gear so volume,tone etc is etched in brass plate) is very short,15-20mins,same as a pcb more or less. The problem with the acid etch is smut build up,and the reason you hang the dial plate face down,you can do it vertical and use a fish tank pump to make the whole thing work faster,use a solid plastic tube with lots of small holes,about 0.3-0.5 mm dia,with a stainless steel weight to hold it down seeing as it's full of air to agitate the etchant. If you read this let me know,and i'll speed up your etch time even more,scottish style.

All I can say is thank god your dogs innards are nice and shinny

Ferric Chloride is the etchant we've always used for diy circuit boards. The laser tape idea is Interesting though.

Very cool tutorial, i know this is 3 years old, so you may have improved your skill, but my dad used to make brass plaques for entry of buildings, and the method he used to engrave was, if i recall correctly, hydrochloric acid, I'm not sure if there was an additive, but it was what he used, word of caution though, that method needs serious ventilation even while being outside, you need a fan to keep the fumes away from your lungs. And for the masking, although in here precision might be a factor, a simple vinyl sticker paper worked perfectly, it could withstand the acid very well, and it can be cut in a plotter, so those who can't use laser cut, have a solution, and for the wrapping of the rest, just plain old packing tape works well too, and super cheap. I don't know if vinyl will interact with Ferric chloride, i doubt it will, so it might be a viable solution. But all in all, your method was really great and less dangerous to your health, wish my dad learned about it when he did those, might have saved few health concerns he had before passing away. Great job!

In printmaking we use a large feather to remove the bubbles.

Top tip: I keep a spray bottle of soap water solution in the shop for wetting sandpaper, also good for washing hands, cleaning lenses, and checking for leaks in air pressure or torch bottles.

Such beautiful work!!!!

another option for you etching is just spray paint the brass, and then laser away the paint (matt black acrylic). ready to etch! its that easy.

You can use the Ferric Chloride on brass MANY MANY times over. It goes a long way. Make sure its warm. 125 F

Thanks for the tip on adding the soap. Will def use it. Furthermore, great videos and thank you for the time you put into it.

A side note on ferric... I can’t get it where I live , so you can make it very easily with muriatic acid and a few steel wool pads... the acid robs iron from the steel, presto ferric chloride!

Great work. When I acid etch brass I spray the brass plate with mat black and then 'engrave' the design off with the laser. I get very good results but I will try the laser film .

Nice video! I've read where they used to use asphaltum varnish for the resist. I suppose they would print that one the stock and then after the acid etching was complete, they would wash the asphaltum off with turpentine.

Several folks have complained about the music. I don't mind the music, per se. I will, however, humbly request that for future videos, you give more separation between your talking and the music. At multiple points in this video, including 3:54 as an example, I found it exceedingly difficult to make out all your words, as the music faded up and drowned them out. So if you could please be careful about that in the future, I'd much appreciate it, and I'm sure others would, too. Otherwise, great stuff! Thanks for creating these videos!

I use a similar process to etch PCB's, I just paint the whole thing black. After that I use the lazer to burn away the paint. A quick wipe with a toothbrush and its ready to etch. The paint comes when exposed to acetone

Muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide technique requires *constant* agitation and is a pain in the arse if you're etching anything other than PCBs, yeah. Aside from that, the pieces you produced in the end are absolutely stunning. Excellent video! :)

Can you imagine what these old engineers would have done if we brought them into the future with all this tech!?

What a fantastic & informative video, I could watch stuff like this for hours.

Magnificent video!

Tip for separating the Ikonics layers: Once you get it going, rip it off real fast, like a bandaid. The green stuff really doesn't want to let go of the clear film and it will stretch a lot. BUT it stretches slow. If you think you're pulling too fast, pull faster.

About a drill in brass; dull the angel of attack to zero degrees; cuts like a charm and wont lift your workpiece when getting through. Alternatively for cutting the outside circumference; establish the center, cut the outside rough with a hand- or bandsaw and then pressure turn it on the lathe directly. No need for flying cutters in between at all. Rotary table with a small endmill would do the same job more safe too. Brass has a peaceful reputation as an ingredient for all kinds of romantic stuff. For a machinist it's a material with real risks involved. Free drilling is the main example to be caught by a piece of brass and cutting some of your important body arteries as a start. Flying workholding vises are also a hazard... I like your work, I like your style but my problem is that you're communicating in a way that your approach seams the truth or the only way to get the job done. And that's why my irritation kicks in and I'm writing a comment. I don't know where you live and I don't know if you're open to suggestions but if you like I can give you some experienced advice on how to machine a part in a mean, lean and effective way. Curious about your answer, best regards, Job (Delft, the Netherlands)

You could always mark out the lines and get some hand engraving tools. Old skool 😎

I know I must be missing something. To avoid the need for making the bushing, why not drill the center hole a quarter inch to start and then expand it to final dimension after the lathe work? Love your videos. Thanks.

Could we get a link and specific brand name to the green tape? Looks similar to what is used for masking on powder coating. And, I agree wholeheartedly on the cutting boards! I’ve been using them for years as a building material. HF also carries some well priced choices. Beautiful dial. I bow to your talent. LOVE THE PAGE. 💋👍🏻🖖🏻 Oh, one critique,... Watch your editing tracks and where your background music comes in. You blocked words several times. No biggie.

Ammonium persulphate is a good enchant to consider.

You can get a much much quicker etch with ferric chloride by not leaving the piece in a bath of it, but instead using a sponge and very gently (and repeatedly) layer some over the surface. You need a fraction of etchant, and the etch is a lot quicker too. Google "pcb sponge method". For the painting, you can also do it after you remove the mask entirely. Just spray, then sand down as you do -- the etching will keep the paint, the top surface won't.

Kudos to Judy!

Nice process. Thanks for sharing.

Excellent method. Can't wait to try it.

Google "ferric chloride etching temperature" for a number of discussions re heating the etchant to ~ 40 degC to speed the process. Gentle agitation is essential; commercial circuit board shops use pumps and spray bars to rinse the surface of the card continuously with hot, aerated solution. Note that some of these process enhancements depend on using a robust etch mask material - some of the 'toner transfer' methods are fairly fragile. Rehearse with scrap card material until you have mastered the various tasks.

Very nice work! I've watched a few channels grow from the first ten thousand subs and developed something of an eye for who is going to make it; You most definitely will if you just keep 'em coming. Also, wouldn't laser engraving have done the trick? I get that you wanted to master brass etching and all, but since you already had the piece on the laser table...

Thanks for the etching tips. The dials look great.

I've found a ratio of 1:1 Ferric Cloride:Water is a fastest and cleanest etch.

It's not ClickSpring but.............YOUR ARE AWESOME!!!!!! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!! You are Expanding my mind, intriguing my interest in the Origin of our trade and it's secrets, while entertaining use with Knowledge and Skill..thank you and sorry about the ClickSpring joke.....hahahaha

G'day mate, for brass holding techniques check out a guy called 'Clickspring' here on RU-vid. He is a small machine shop guy that builds immensely complicated machinery from Australia. He uses a super glue and arbor method, very smart. This will save you some hassles. Take it easy.

Outstanding videos, all of them! Keep them coming, you’re gonna do well on RU-vid!!

Top work. Excellent project and great attention to detail.

I have no idea what I’m watching...but I love it. P.S. I dig the music

Superb workmanship!

Quality channel, nice commentary, I appreciate the attention to detail and the scientific approach. subscribed

Thnx to share your precious experience

This was great up to the point it went in the laser…. I haven’t got one :( I wonder how they did it in James Watt’s day?

oh almost forgot that i was happy too your dog survived )),,,very curios dog ,,and Judy was a great person to help)) god Bless America we all Love!

Thanks for the tips at the end it will save me time and effort not trying those methods.

used the same method to make builders tags for a Fairbanks Morse engine, not as much machining but same system. I think Henry Maudslay was behind your mike somehow.

Excellent work. We will try this method to make pins.

Oh my gosh that rub n brite story is just heart melting

music sounds like a fifth grade musical recital....everything else [thumbs up emoji]. also thanks for keeping the average joe in mind :) In the future no need to worry about running the mill backwarsd though, if they can't do that then they probably don't have mills, lathes, laser engravers and 3d printers rofl.

user/TheRedNile voice doing Clickspring work: perfection

I wonder how many scrapped parts clickspring is hiding.

This is the weirdest NileRed video ever

That's a beautiful effect in its own right @17:13

Another great video. I have to say that I really lie the "Bonus Material" section as well.

Has anyone tried making PCBs with this laser tape thingy?

AWESOME AWESOME info... you've saved alot of people ALOT of time, effort, & headaches! Absolutely amazing video. Im curious is this a hobby for you, or is this your profession?

Not sure if 3M still makes a tape for etching electronic circuits. I had occasion to do some very detailed glass etching and that stuff worked great.

Beautiful work, well explained. Thank you.

Watching this was cathartic.

If you neutralize the muriatic acid you should be able to dispose of it in the sanitary system. Really the main issue is the dissolved metals post-etching which do require special disposal. And the peroxide method you might get better results with you run it on copper first and regenerate it. It seems that the cupric cloride created is the man etchant.

8:30 is there a reason to use one method over another? Is that coaxial indicator better than a edge/center finder?

I remember doing some kind of art project ages ago with an etch on copper foil... I remember that etch being sulfur based. (Stunk as you'd expect.) And as part of how it worked, it blackened the copper foil. I wonder why that wasn't used, since the markings were made black later anyways?