Electro Etching an AR-15 80% lower.

[VaderSpade]

Half the fun of building a gun is putting your own mark on it. I have been experimenting with different methods, and electro etching is the best method I have found so far (I have ideas for improvements).

I started by trying sandblasting. I bought some resist tape cut out my pattern put it on a piece of scrap and blasted away. It worked O.K. BUT the air pressure lifted the finer tips and such, so it was back to the drawing board.

Using the same resist tape I tried electro etching, and the results were much better.

I am etching with a jewelry plating power source but a battery charger will work (not an automatic one).

I mixed white vinegar with a little salt, dipped a Q-tip into this solution and attached it to the negative side of the charger, then clamped the positive side to the lower.

It took longer than I was told (about one hour and 10 Q-tips), but I think it turned out nice.

Here is my most recent effort.


I started by drawing my pattern.


Cutting the pattern


Hooked up ready to go.


Making little bubbles.


After cleanup with the sandblaster.

[FJKernel]

That's rather good! How deep would you say it went into the material? Deep enough to meet the ATF requirements?

Very interesting... I supposed less time would be a shallower burn. 3d etching into your lower....

[goober]

i can see lots of potential w/ photo-reactive stencils here....

[krazy]

Wow that looks good. Would this work on anodized pieces too?

[uxo2]

Nice results.......

[Q]

I've seen this method used for ak trunnion markings and more authentic selector markings on ak receivers. I thought it would only work on steel. That turned out nice.

[ar15barrels]

Wow that looks good. Would this work on anodized pieces too?

No.
The anodizing acts as insulation.

[VaderSpade]

The Finishing Touches.

I anodized three lowers today, and they came out great.

Pictures do not do this justice, the flash made it hard to get a good picture, and it's too late for natural light.





Tomorrow I put it all together, and go shooting.

[JagerTroop]

Looks good

For the record, Yes. You can go deep enough for ATF regs. You'll just need to keep at it for a while. It takes me about 1.5 hours to etch all the ID markings and "safe/fire" marks.

Again, good job Vader.

[aplinker]

hmmm...

We do some very simple photoresist/mask stuff for high school students that would translate really well for this.

You would get really clean edges (no cutting required) as you could use any B/W printed transparency to do the developing in sunlight.

Let me get the materials list and the how-to - if you want to try it.

[osis32]

that looks very labor intensive and meticulous. I applaud your effort and result.

[goober]

hmmm...

We do some very simple photoresist/mask stuff for high school students that would translate really well for this.

You would get really clean edges (no cutting required) as you could use any B/W printed transparency to do the developing in sunlight.

Let me get the materials list and the how-to - if you want to try it.

thats what i was getting at...

[Q]

[goober]

yes thats one of several commercial products that do what VaderSpade did w/ very cheap OTS materials.
note that the "in seconds" marking is very superficial... not really akin to engraving as much as just shallow etching or frosting.
that company also sells photostencil materials & gear at a considerably inflated (IMO) price.
but yes it works.

[adamsreeftank]

Very cool!

Can you share info about the electrical source - Watts, Volts, Amps?

I wonder if you could do as deep an etching with the photo type stencils.