KRЯRL DЯAWINGS: Failed Vinegar Eletro-Etch

After 2 hours electro-etching a copper plate -- using only diluted vinegar as an electrolyte -- the copper barely etched. Another failure. I did not follow the initial procedure that I blogged about.

Lightly electro-etched copper plate

after 2 hours in a vinegar solution

First we laser cut one of the drawings in my book onto a copper plate coated with black spray paint.

Drawing 186 from my book,

after it was flipped horizontally

In XnView

the drawing was reduced to black and white

with the "Floyd Steinberg" half tone formula

The drawing was then uploaded to the

laser cutter computer

Darren did the heavy work for me again

on the laser cutter

The laser cutter

cut away all the black spray paint

on the copper plate

Laser cut plate

next to the image on the laser computer

I taped a wire to the back of the copper plate

I spray painted the back of the copper plate --

and lightly dusted the front of the copper plate

to add an "aquatint" to the image

I made a vinegar solution with -- 16 cups of water to a cup of vinegar -- and partially filled a plastic tub with the fluid. Then I placed a stainless steel tray on the bottom, covering it with a piece of plastic, and then submersed the copper plate on top of that. The plastic separates the copper from the stainless steel, so that the metals do not touch each other.

Submerged copper plate

in a bath of dilute vinegar

We attached the copper plate to the red positive output of a voltmeter -- and the black negative alligator clip to the stainless steel tray at the bottom of the solution. Then we started with 5 volts, and .08 amps.