Ray Allred
Member
Hi all,
Foremost, I'm not a photographer, but am a bit stuck trying to figure something out and thought you kind and knowledgeable folks could help me figure this out as I do believe you guys might know the technique. I hope I'm in the right place and a post like this is allowed. Forgive me if not.
Years ago, a fellow shared with me a procedure to making photo etched cockpit instrument panels (picture attached). I was interested in building some panels for a home simulator, but life got in the way, now I'm looking to do this again. Although I have a co2 laser that can engrave the lettering, the results are not very good as I have no depth control.
To give you a little insight as to how it works: The panels are made out of clear sheet acrylic, then a very thin sheet of white styrene is laid on top of it (or acrylic is painted white). It's then painted gray (cockpit color). The gray paint is then removed either by laser or a chemical etching process, exposing the white underneath (white lettering). Since white is a translucent color, it allows the panel to be backlit.
I made a spreadsheet of the process (attached), but I don't quite understand how it all works. The artwork (lettering) is printed on a transparency sheet and laid on top of the painted panel, then exposed under a UV light for 3 minutes, which from what I understand, hardens the gelatin emulsion in all the areas there is no artwork (printed in black, protecting emulsion coat). One then removes the transparency, and with a spray gun (used for painting) spray acetone which dissolves the emulsion along with paint in the areas where there was artwork (lettering). In other words, the black letters printed on the transparency protected those areas from the UV light.
The guy who shared this with me said it's called a "chemical etching" process, but not only do I not have a way of contacting him any more, I'm confused as to what a process like this is called and how all the chemicals interact with each other, so, I'm reaching out to you guys who perhaps would know what's going on here and how this works as I've heard you guys often work with etching and UV exposure.
I'm able to find all the chemicals in the attached procedure spreadsheet, except "lipal". The gentleman told me this served as a lubricant. Again, not sure if this could be substituted with something else (?).
Finally, thank you very much in advance for reading this and I sure do hope someone out there can help me better understand how this process works.
Kind regards,
Ray A.
View attachment 269553
Foremost, I'm not a photographer, but am a bit stuck trying to figure something out and thought you kind and knowledgeable folks could help me figure this out as I do believe you guys might know the technique. I hope I'm in the right place and a post like this is allowed. Forgive me if not.
Years ago, a fellow shared with me a procedure to making photo etched cockpit instrument panels (picture attached). I was interested in building some panels for a home simulator, but life got in the way, now I'm looking to do this again. Although I have a co2 laser that can engrave the lettering, the results are not very good as I have no depth control.
To give you a little insight as to how it works: The panels are made out of clear sheet acrylic, then a very thin sheet of white styrene is laid on top of it (or acrylic is painted white). It's then painted gray (cockpit color). The gray paint is then removed either by laser or a chemical etching process, exposing the white underneath (white lettering). Since white is a translucent color, it allows the panel to be backlit.
I made a spreadsheet of the process (attached), but I don't quite understand how it all works. The artwork (lettering) is printed on a transparency sheet and laid on top of the painted panel, then exposed under a UV light for 3 minutes, which from what I understand, hardens the gelatin emulsion in all the areas there is no artwork (printed in black, protecting emulsion coat). One then removes the transparency, and with a spray gun (used for painting) spray acetone which dissolves the emulsion along with paint in the areas where there was artwork (lettering). In other words, the black letters printed on the transparency protected those areas from the UV light.
The guy who shared this with me said it's called a "chemical etching" process, but not only do I not have a way of contacting him any more, I'm confused as to what a process like this is called and how all the chemicals interact with each other, so, I'm reaching out to you guys who perhaps would know what's going on here and how this works as I've heard you guys often work with etching and UV exposure.
I'm able to find all the chemicals in the attached procedure spreadsheet, except "lipal". The gentleman told me this served as a lubricant. Again, not sure if this could be substituted with something else (?).
Finally, thank you very much in advance for reading this and I sure do hope someone out there can help me better understand how this process works.
Kind regards,
Ray A.
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