electro eching of picks

by **cjames73** » 26 Jan 2007 22:20

i've just found a way to make picks using electro-chemical etching. it uses electricity and salt water to etch through the metal.
http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet/makevalves1.pdf
in the link he uses thin spring steel but if you use a hacksaw blade and leave it longer it should work.
has anyone already tried this?

by **Exodus5000** » 27 Jan 2007 1:26

I skimmed the PDF file, and to be honest I am more impressed than I presumed I would be. Although somewhat odd, and perhaps not as precise as other methods, this is indeed a viable option for cutting a pick.

On a slight tangent, this makes me wonder how a chemical bath could potentially smooth the edges of picks for a better finish.

by **cjames73** » 27 Jan 2007 6:35

you could, in theory cut a whole set of picks in one go of whatever complex pattern you want. the edges would need finishing by hand but it wouldnt be much.
i'll have to buy some auto undercoat and give it a go.
as for smoothing the udges using a chemical bath, it would need some research+experimenting.

by **adesw** » 27 Jan 2007 9:33

well if you really liked a certain pick design than you could use this kind of method to mass produce that specific pick over and over again. Then youd just need a bit of sanding and youd be done. This could be usefull if you found a really good pick design and you wanted to sell them.

by **Exodus5000** » 27 Jan 2007 13:30

adesw wrote:This could be usefull if you found a really good pick design and you wanted to sell them.

*Cough* Ray *cough* bogotas...

Dusty forums this morning.

by **cjames73** » 27 Jan 2007 13:40

Exodus5000 wrote: *Cough* Ray *cough* bogotas...
Dusty forums this morning.

my thought too.

i have to wait until monday to buy the paint before i try it.

by **dragonriot** » 28 Jan 2007 12:41

I'm gonna go to American Science and Surplus today to get a few things, namely a $20.00 bench grinder and some steel plate to use as my cathode for this...

As a side note, this can also be used for rust removal on thicker metal... I wouldn't use it on thin stuff because it might very well just eat right through it.

I'll also be going to Home Depot to see if I can get some pipe snake stock or a roll of spring steel from some metal supply house in Milwaukee.

by **dragonriot** » 29 Jan 2007 0:49

AS&S had NOTHING that I wanted... the Bench Grinder was $39.00 for some off-brand POS, and they had no spring steel or plain steel plate... oh well.

by **unjust** » 29 Jan 2007 20:08

where you at in wi?

on topic, PCBs can be etched in the same way, and you can use a printer to produce your template.

of course depending on thickness of metal you're going to see degradation of the edges, but at the thicknesses we work at it shouldnt' be an issue.

to mass produce you're going to start going through a LOT of solution though.

a better option may be CNC milling, which is on my shorter list of majr undertakings (after cleaning the basement)

by **dragonriot** » 30 Jan 2007 17:35

actually, the reagent steel lasts an amazingly long time... you can refresh the cathode by scraping off the "rust" that builds up on it from the reaction, and it should be reusable at least until it gets cakes with crap again... the solution is just salt water, so who cares... salt is cheap, and water is cheaper...

I'm in Waterloo, about 20 miles east of Madison and 45 miles west of Milwaukee.

by **Wolfe** » 31 Jan 2007 14:30

pretty cool anybody try this yet? If so what were your results.

by **CVScam** » 5 Mar 2007 1:49

I saw this thread last night so I played around a few hours today and after a few mistakes I made a usable 1/2 diamond using a hacksaw blade, black enamel spray paint, saltwater and a power supply. I started out using 12 volts and 100 milliamp power supply and It took about 1.5-2 hours to cut the design but the first few I made using the paint that was already on the hacksaw blade. The factory paint on the hacksaw blade was not good and the process made the pick but it eat the end of the snake rake. I then sanded the hacksaw blade and used spray enamel because it was all I had on Sunday afternoon. I switched over to a 12volt 6 amp power supply and more salt in the water and I got the cutting time down to 15-20 mins, I hooked up my meter and I was drawing 3-5 amps and the water got HOT. I am going to get some good auto lacquer paint or primer to make some more. I did find out you have to etch the design a bit bigger than you really want because you lose some of the metal as it "cuts." I made a video and posted a few pictures of my set up. I didn't have a chance to edit the video yet. Here is the picture of a few of the picks I made so far. The 1/2 diamond is usable just coming out of the water. The etching smoothed out the teeth of the hacksaw blade because the paint I used didn't stick very well to the teeth.

http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p272 ... C00473.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvj7w0EzrV0

by **Libris** » 5 Mar 2007 17:59

Interesting, I will keep an eye on this thread

by **ObiWonShinobi** » 25 Mar 2007 8:29

ohhh man, ideas!!!
I'm going to radio shack to get one of those PCB etching kits....
anyone else ever use one?
I wonder how long this will take.......

I'm kinda Leary about the saltwater thing... visualizing pits and rough edges

by **Shrub** » 25 Mar 2007 10:05

A pcb etching kit is for copper and copper picks are not any good for picking with :wink:

You would also need a few days to etch the thickness of material you would require,

electro eching of picks

electro eching of picks

Who is online