Harbinger One with Demo (first etch)

[pryde]

Thanks everyone for the very nice compliments, means alot from all you excellent builders here. I put this one in the April contest, just cause I'm very proud of it. There are so many builds here that inspire me to keep pushing my creative envelope so its a win-win either way 

I will be glad to share any tips from my etch even though I am new at it so YMMV of course 

[whitebread47]

Your build is quite worthy of an entry in the build contest IMO.  And yep, the only thing that pushed me past a bare enclosure with sharpie labeling was all the gasping in awe I've at the marvelous builds of all the resident wizards here (yourself included, of course). 

They raise the bar - I just try to catch up! 

[hoodoo]

Wow mate, if that's your first etch, i'm looking forward to seeing what you do next, magnificent pedal and playing, all the best, Matt.

[Hangingmonkey]

Thats a great etch.  Glad you got it working in the end

[raulduke]

Great build and fantastic etch dude.

Top build.

Got my harbinger ordered. can't wait to build the sucker up.

[mshuptar]

That etch and the font are awesome! Great playing in the demo, too!

[selfdestroyer]

Thanks everyone for the very nice compliments, means alot from all you excellent builders here. I put this one in the April contest, just cause I'm very proud of it. There are so many builds here that inspire me to keep pushing my creative envelope so its a win-win either way 

I will be glad to share any tips from my etch even though I am new at it so YMMV of course 

I would love to hear about your process on etching. I have attempted it once and was not very susessfull with a deep etch like yours. Any info would help. Thanks

[Hangingmonkey]

Hey Pryde, im half way through building this. Quick question, does the rate LED stay on when the pedal is bypassed?

[Hangingmonkey]

Doh, ignore that, the answer was in the build doc

[GhostofJohnToad]

Your build has me listening to Trower and building my Harbinger.  Awesome work!

[fendman]

Great etch and the playing is first class...got my board the other day, makes me want to get it built up even quicker.
Well done Pryde

Mike

[pryde]

I would love to hear about your process on etching. I have attempted it once and was not very susessfull with a deep etch like yours. Any info would help. Thanks
[/quote]

@ selfdestroyer:

-I used HP gloss presentation paper printed with samsung laser printer at 300 dpi
-Baked on the transfer with wife's iron using highest setting for AT LEAST 15 MINUTES. The enclosure was extremely hot when done (hot enough to make a blister I know
-Let this soak in water for 15 minutes and gently removed paper/wet pulp from surface. This took the longest and used only light rubbing pressure with my fingertip to teese off the material.
-Painted nail polish around edges very thick to protect alum on sides
-Used blue painters tape and taped on small toothpick off-sets on each corner on the face of the enclosure
-Used Radioshack ferric-chloride ~1/8" deep in bottom of flat, plastic plate.
-Sat enclosure face-down in etchant (toothpick offsets keep it slightly hovered into etchant)
-Mild agitation for 5 minutes and be mindful of aluminum temperature. If it gets hot to the touch, remove it and set it in plate of water to stop chemical reaction, then resume etching again for another 5 minutes, repeat until you clearly see relief in the aluminum.

This one took about 15 min total with this process. I think the difficult part is knowing when to stop for good as the etchant is reacting and its hard to tell how much it has eaten away

[selfdestroyer]

I would love to hear about your process on etching. I have attempted it once and was not very susessfull with a deep etch like yours. Any info would help. Thanks


@ selfdestroyer:

-I used HP gloss presentation paper printed with samsung laser printer at 300 dpi
-Baked on the transfer with wife's iron using highest setting for AT LEAST 15 MINUTES. The enclosure was extremely hot when done (hot enough to make a blister I know
-Let this soak in water for 15 minutes and gently removed paper/wet pulp from surface. This took the longest and used only light rubbing pressure with my fingertip to teese off the material.
-Painted nail polish around edges very thick to protect alum on sides
-Used blue painters tape and taped on small toothpick off-sets on each corner on the face of the enclosure
-Used Radioshack ferric-chloride ~1/8" deep in bottom of flat, plastic plate.
-Sat enclosure face-down in etchant (toothpick offsets keep it slightly hovered into etchant)
-Mild agitation for 5 minutes and be mindful of aluminum temperature. If it gets hot to the touch, remove it and set it in plate of water to stop chemical reaction, then resume etching again for another 5 minutes, repeat until you clearly see relief in the aluminum.

This one took about 15 min total with this process. I think the difficult part is knowing when to stop for good as the etchant is reacting and its hard to tell how much it has eaten away

Awesome, Its the same process I use for PCBs for the most part as I laid out here. http://music.codydeschenes.com/?page_id=1388 it looks like we use the same paper and iron. My wife gave me her iron when I promised to buy her a new one.. lol

I will give it another go this week and see what I can get. Thanks for taking the time and documenting that out. I appreciate it.

[Stomptown]

That's one beautiful etch Pryde! Great build all around...

[CarpathiART]

Looks and sounds amazing! Just superb job on the etch! I´m getting inspired to etch some enclosure(s) in the future just by looking at this thing! GREATNESS!