For etching we use citric acid. You can buy it at any grocery.
First of all let’s take a workpiece, work it with abrasive paper and degrease with alcohol (or any cleaning fluid).
Then paint the workpiece and let the paint dry.
Select a pattern for engraving:
For engraving we use the following parameters: power — 100, number of passes — 20. It takes us about one hour to engrave the pattern.
For etching we need to dissolve 60 g of citric acid in 1 liter of hot water and stir it.
We use the plus and minus wires of the electric adapter as cathode and anode and connect an iron object to the minus, and our workpiece to the plus. Then we dip both things at the ends of the wires into the citric acid solution, leaving the wires themselves above the fluid.
Then we plug the electric adapter into a socket and get the current 12 V, 3 A.
The process of electrolysis (etching) begins. We see it by a rather violent reaction. The etching process is over when the reaction weakens.
Periodically (approximately, every 15 minutes) you need to wipe the products of etching and bubbles from your workpiece.
You can vary the etching time (1 hour in our case), changing the current strength and concentration of the solution.
We take the ready pattern out of the solution.
