Hi guys. I am looking to etch up my tools because any other method I have used does nothing. I have looked up a few things and have decided to go with etching using ac/dc power supply and a mixture of salt and/or vinegar. However, I am looking for something a little more classy than carving up my name in electrical tape. I have seen youtube videos that mention a simple brother hand held thermal printer and stencil cartridges. These, however, seem to be fairly limiting. I would ideally like to be able to load images up on my computer and edit it similar to photoshop. As well, I would like to not be limited by tiny sizes if I didn't have to be. All that said, I don't really want to pay out $2,000 either. If it's better to just stick with nail polish or electrical tape, then I will.
Is this in the correct forum? or should it be in the "Making your mark" section? Admins, feel free to move it if it is in the wrong area.
You can get stencils made from your image (I can't recall a name right now. Check through this section). If you need a variety of stencils, it might be worth purchasing bulk stencil material and developer to make your own.
I bought mine from Ernie Grospitch at Blue Lightning Stencils. $60 US for a bunch of sheets, different sizes etc. There's a few makes of stencil makers out there. T.U.S. comes highly recommended. http://www.tustech.com/admin/ecst Dan
The brother printer is probably the best budget option. You could make yourself at least 100 knife stencils for under 150 bucks. That being said it's a get what you pay for situation. Its covered a bit on this thread. http://www.canadianknifemaker.ca/index.php?threads/vinyl-cutter-s.2833/#post-23706 The brother printer has a very low dip and as such curved edges look like a 1980s Mario game. (Close up of a 1/4 inch diameter logo) I have since got a cricut explore air 2 and the stencil vynal. Gunna run you 200 bucks for just the vynal cutter but the things you can do with it more then makes it worth it. I have even cut some thin veg tan leather with it so theres the possibility of using it for sheaths as well. I bought the explore air on sale at Michael's for 175 (cant use coupons on the cricut stuff) and called it my girlfriends xmas present so I didn't even have to justify another toy for my knife making addiction. I'll post pictures of the crisp edges you get from the cricut when I get home.
So the O in the ok tire logo is about the size of that logo in my last post but you can see the cricut has the ability to cut a curve and not the pixelated staircase like edge of the brother stencil. The wave in the edge is the fault of my old home phone ac adapter turned etching machine not the stencil. It cuts perfectly if you use a vector photo to make the stencil.
Hey that's really cool thanks for sharing. I could imagine this being cost effective for sure, especially for one-off stencils.
