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Etch METAL with Battery Power


this video is brought to you by Dollar
Shave Club hey guys i’m nate welcome
back to the workshop today we’re going
to be trying an experiment that I’ve
wanted to do for quite a while we’re
going to use electricity to see if we
can engrave or etched steel although I
think this idea has been done by a lot
of people I got the idea from watching a
channel called the art of weapons check
the link below the basic idea is that
you can use a low voltage direct current
and a little bit of salt water or
vinegar to engrave or etched into steel
we have a few different varieties of
this setup that we’re gonna try and see
which one works the best I have a couple
different types of Steel that I want to
try a flat carbon steel bar and this
stainless steel cup in order to make the
designs a little more detailed than just
drawing with a q-tip you can use masks
to carefully outline where you want the
etching to go there are a few different
types of masks I’m going to try
electrical tape nail polish and a
sticker and then finally there are two
different ways I’m going to try applying
the electricity the first is just using
some 9-volt batteries and connecting
directly to those the second source of
electricity is this AC to DC adapter
which I’m going to use to let me have a
constant stream of electricity straight
from the outlet I’ve also seen people
attempting this using a car battery
charger which should do mostly the same
thing as this AC to DC adapter which is
to put out a constant stream of 12 volt
electricity at approximately 1 amp let’s
start out by testing our high carbon
steel bar to be sure we have a nice
clean and non oxidized surface to work
with let’s get some high grit sandpaper
and just go over this whole bar that
will remove any oxidation or grease that
may be on the surface of the seal
let’s use some electrical tape to mask
off areas that we don’t want to engrave
this wood here closely to the steel so
we shouldn’t have to worry about any of
the water seeping underneath the tape
there’s a line right here that kind of
looks like it’s exposed steel but it’s
actually just a very edge of the
electrical tape and it has a little bit
of dust on it so it’s white but in truth
the steel is not exposed right there at
all now let’s take an exacto knife and
carefully cut out the pattern that we
want to engrave on to the steel I think
I’ve successfully cut out the shape that
I want now I’ll peel off the electrical
tape on the inside where I want it and
great supposed to sort of be a little
flame not sure how much it really looks
like one but it’ll still work really
well for testing there we go got the two
cut out I’m just gonna press down to
make sure the tape is really nicely
attached especially there’s little bits
that point down into the shape
I don’t want those accidentally peeling
off now let’s take out one of our
batteries and connect it to our
alligator clips attach our black to the
negative terminal and the red one to the
positive terminal these little alligator
clips should be available at most
hardware stores I got this set at Harbor
Freight for about three bucks I have
here a small dish with a little bit of
water in it let’s just add some salt now
we take the lead on our positive
terminal and we attach that to the metal
now let’s take a cotton swab dip it
quickly into the saltwater and attach it
to the lead on the negative terminal our
two experiments are going to be with
salt water and vinegar to see which one
works better I’ve heard both can give
good results actually here at doing
something there are tiny tiny little
bubbles forming on this I saw a little
wisp of smoke there too
you know keep painting over it you can
definitely see the bubbling going on
gross that’s all just like edged away
steel that has built up on the cotton
swab I’m gonna use the other end of this
cotton swab to sort of clean it off a
little bit and get a new one and keep
going over it again we’re just gonna
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description below alright that seems to
be working pretty well I’m gonna try it
with vinegar on the other one and see if
we get any results the cotton swab dip
it into vinegar attach it to the
negative lead terminal I don’t hear
anything with the salt water it started
kind of making a bubbling noise I’m
getting a little bit of discoloration on
the cotton swab from where the alligator
clip is biting into it it’s not doing
anything on our carbon steel bar our
carbon steel bar did not seem affected
when we tested it with the vinegar but
it seemed to go pretty quickly when we
used it with the salt water let’s take
off the tape and check the result
disconnect I would get a clip from my
power source you off the tape and see
how it looks underneath
all right so where we had the vinegar
there might be a slight discoloration
you can see the lines going around but
for the most part that’s just where the
knife cut through the tape you can see
that it’ll just mark it if I don’t even
have tape there so we have the outline
of where I cut and it might look a
little bit less shiny where I had the
vinegar but I can’t tell if it’s changed
much however with the salt water it
really did something very visible and in
fact there’s even a little bit of a lip
where the metal has actually been worn
away that is a very very different look
right there so salt water works great
with a nivel battery vinegar on the
carbon steel not so much the salt water
powered by a nine volt battery was doing
a really good job of engraving the steel
I want to see what happens though if I
take a second battery connect the two
together and then attach the leads to
the battery like this will the
additional power make it engrave faster
let’s find out red to the positive
terminal black to the negative terminal
I’m going to do a slightly simpler
design this time I’m just going to cut
out a square because a square should
test how well it works just as well as a
fire
attach our positive lead to our steel a
little bit of salt water on our q-tip
and attach it to the negative lead now
using two batteries let’s see how well
this works certain live seeing something
it’s getting the q-tip dirtier much
faster so I think that means it’s
working better at least faster I don’t
know
faster is necessarily better in this
situation but feel like it is my that’s
uh there’s a lot of bubbling action
right there alright I think that is
enough I can take off our tape and see
how it’s doing think it off a little bit
with another cotton swab here I would
say that is definitely engraved right up
to the edges here there is a very clear
lip where the steel has dropped down
it’s a very small amount
I’d say probably a fraction of a
millimeter but it’s nothing you know we
can catch the blade very easily I think
I can they even threw my gloves I can
feel it with my fingers and fingernails
well I would say that two batteries
definitely works faster than one battery
which should be no surprise if one is
working two is gonna have more power
running into it I don’t know if it’s
necessarily a good thing it does seem to
be a little harder to control and give a
little bit more of a splotchy result
maybe I just need to be more careful
about moving the cotton swab quickly so
it doesn’t stay in one place too long
the battery differently works now I want
to try moving on to our AC to DC adapter
if you’re like me you might have several
of these floating around your house
somewhere with no idea what they go to
or if you don’t have any you can often
pick them up at a thrift store for just
a couple of bucks failing that they’re
also available on Amazon what you want
to look out for is one that says that it
has an output of 12 volts and one camp
this small line with three dots
underneath it means it’s putting out DC
power not AC power that’s what we want
this end that’s on the power cord is not
what we want so let’s just snip it off
now let’s separate the do cords and
strip back a little bit of the plastic
so we have the exposed wire underneath
I believe the wire with the black dotted
line running along it is the negative
terminal if it doesn’t work very well
then we’ll just switch them and see if
that helps it it’s gonna fold up a
little bit to make it a bit easier for
the Gator clip to grab on to it now
let’s plug in our adapter try a
different shape this time I’m just gonna
make a longer slightly squiggly line all
right
connect our what I hope is our positive
terminal to the metal our salt water
covered cotton swab connected to the
negative terminal see how this works oh
we got bubbling pretty much right away
which I think confirms that this is in
fact the negative terminal I would say
this is a little bit more bubbling
action than one 9-volt battery but less
than two which makes sense since this is
12 volts in each of the batteries is 9
volts I saw a fair amount of bubbling
when I first started applying it like
this but it hasn’t been changing the
color at all and there’s been no buildup
on the tip of the cotton swab it’s been
building up where the alligator clip was
holding it but not on the tip of the
swab so I’m wondering if I have my
positive and negative terminals switched
so I’m just going to attach the black
one to the bar and put the cotton swab
in the red clips and then see if it
makes a difference it’s not bubbling as
much as it was before but it’s
definitely discolor anymore which i
think is the more important look because
it means it’s actually doing something
to the metal I was doing a lot more than
it was before so I clearly had my
positive and negative terminals switched
on that wire you can see that this time
all of the build-up on the cotton swab
is where it’s touching the steel and not
where the alligator clip is gripping it
beautiful
just like how we were getting before
there’s definitely an edge on the steel
a lip that can kind of catch the blade
that has removed some steel right up to
the line saltwater seems to be working
great both sources of electricity seem
to be working great and electrical tape
is making a great mask I do want to try
one other type of masking and that’s
nail polish I’m gonna be using black
nail polish because it will be easier to
see the contrast between where there is
and is not a protective coating but you
can use any color you’ve got available
our nail polish is dry so now let’s try
scratching in some lettering to see if
we can use the nail polish as a mask the
same way we did the tape I’m sorry
tearing strangely he’s not actually
sticking very well to our steel it’s
just sort of lifting up in spots I was
trying to make the letter K but it
didn’t stay stuck down very well just
kind of filled right off I’m not sure if
it’s gonna be the best thing to use on a
smooth steel surface I was supposed to
say king with the bit that broke off of
the top of the K it looks more like it
says ring well let’s give it a try
anyway
I think I’ve gotten a decent engraving
there normally I would say get some
acetone to clear all the nail polish off
but coming off so easily been I’m not
sure that’s necessary weirdo you can
definitely see the engraving indeed
engrave the metal pretty well but the
nail polish itself just kind of started
coming up while I was using it I’m not
sure if there’s a way to make it adhere
better to the steel than what I did I
hit it with the very high grit sandpaper
then I actually washed it off with some
isopropyl alcohol before I applied the
nail polish and it was completely dry
when I applied it but it just isn’t
sticking very much maybe it’s just not
meant to stick to steel very well or
maybe it’s just because it’s a low cost
nail polish either way I think the
electrical tape works way better as a
mask if you’ve tried this and you used
nail polish and you had good results I’d
like to know what you did tell me about
it in the comments I was thinking I
might try a second one which is why I
did two different patches of nail polish
but the first one really didn’t impress
me so I think I’m just gonna leave it be
and say let’s move on to trying our
steel cup instead of our steel bar I
have here a stainless steel cup and I
want to see what happens if I try and
engrave onto the outside of it this
could be very useful for personalization
in a very permanent way I also have one
of the methods that I want to try for
masking this off I’m going to be using
this king of random sticker in the same
way that I was using the electrical tape
I’m not going to try and cut out every
single detail of this logo but I am
going to try to go around the main crown
outline and then this one Pentagon shape
that’s touching the crown we’ll see how
it works
now let’s just add a little bit of
electrical tape along the sides so I
don’t accidentally engrave anything I
don’t want to all right we’ve got the
mask set up now let’s try and engrave it
this is a much larger area than I’ve
tested before so I hope it works out
well one of the things I’m really
looking for is for the surface texture
and shine to change the stainless steel
has this brushed look that gives it a
little bit of shine when we were doing
our tests that shine a lot of it went
away and I think that was a good sign
that it had really engraved down into it
a little bit
it is definitely losing some of its
shininess wearing down the steel little
by little just what I want now I think I
have a pretty good edge into the metal
so I’m going to try switching the leads
and using the vinegar to see if I can
darken the metal after I’ve edged it
Oh beautiful
I’m just use a little bit of alcohol on
a cotton swab and clean it off a little
bit hopefully it won’t completely ruin
the finish
there we go using a combination of both
edging methods one to engrave down into
the metal and one to slightly stain it
we’ve gotten a very good result I think
the metal is engraved it is stained and
I’m pretty sure that’s gonna be on there
just forever I’m really looking forward
to it I’m also curious what will happen
to it over time if it will darken or
lighten and we’ll just have to see this
has been a really fun experiment
learning how to use electricity to
engrave into steel which is pretty cool
it doesn’t take a lot of work you can
easily use a 9-volt battery to make it
work or if you can find one of these AC
to DC adapter cords I think they work
even better and then you have a constant
source of electricity that you know
isn’t gonna drain and run out we found
that using the tape or the sticker works
very well as using a mask
I couldn’t get good results with nail
polish but maybe you know a secret to
make it work a lot better if you do let
me know now if you have anything metal
that you want to permanently mark with a
symbol or a logo or a name you know how
to do that yourself maybe you have a
knife that you want to put your logo on
or you have a steel cup and you want to
put your name on it so everyone knows
that it’s your cup this cup even came
with a steel stri suppose you could try
and gravy your name right onto the straw
special shout out to the channel art of
weapons for giving us this idea thank
you thank you guys for joining us for
this project today and we will see you
in the next one talk to you then here’s
the pile of the really disgusting
looking huge cotton swabs
they look like someone was cleaning
something terrible with them if you
clean your ears with a cotton swab and
it looks like this see a doctor
immediately once again thank you to
Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring this
video go now to dollarshaveclub.com
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