Etching and Finishing the Neckplate

On this page are the photos I took while making the neckplate for the back of the guitar. I decided that since I was going to make the pickguard out of brass, I should do a test, but I wanted the test to add to the project. I thought a neckplate would be simple enough, so I made one using some of the brass I didn't need for the pickguard. I cut the brass out using a jeweler's saw and No. 8 blades. The brass itself was 12 gauge, or .08 inches in depth before I etched it. You really don't need to go that thick, especially if you're going to do the cutting by hand. The etch can be pretty deep in places, but if you control it well (as I did with the pickguard, not with the neckplate) it shouldn't be too deep.

A note on the etching process: This process is quite dangerous for many reasons. The process is as follows.

1. Put toner mask on clean brass using iron at its hottest setting.
2. Place the piece in an electrolyte solution, for brass, a copper sulfate solution.
3. Place cathode grid into bath close to, but not touching the piece. I made my grid out of copper wire, but a brazing rod will work just as well.
4. Connect the piece to be etched to the POSITIVE side of a 6 to 12 volt battery, and connect the cathode grid to the NEGATIVE side. I used the battery from my dad's riding mower and jumper cables.
5. The electricity will positively charge the brass, causing a reaction that releases Hydrogen Gas, and breaks brass molecules free, which will then move to the negatively charged copper.
6. Check progress every 10-30 minutes, depending on the concentration of the solution and how deep you want the bite in the brass to be.

Copper Sulfate is a skin irritant and potentially fatal if swallowed. The wires I used were bare, and thus touching them would have given me a serious burn, or electrocution. DO NOT use bare wire. I was stupid, and didn't get covered wire. If you must use bare wire, make sure there is someone around to watch while you etch. Wear rubber gloves when working with the copper sulfate or the wires. and don't touch anything until you are absolutely sure the piece is disconnected from the battery. Also, keep a window open. If the hydrogen gas from the etch fills the room to more than 5%, the air will become flammable. Finally, don't use wire as thick as mine was. 11 or 12 gauge should work just fine, and make sure the grid is even, and isn't closer to the brass in one spot than in another.

Click here for an MS paint diagram of the setup.
Click here and here to see the Steampunk Workshop page on etching brass.
Click here to see Greenart, and view the safety precautions they recommend.

Please view all of the above pages before attempting this project. Greenart has a lot of safety precautions, as the site's owner pioneered this process. They also have information on the safe disposal of copper sulfate, which you need to read before working with it. Recommendations that I have for the etching process:
1. Use Staples Inkjet photo paper, and get the cheapest you can. It should be in a red package. Also, when you actually print on the paper, cover the plastic backing of the photo paper with regular paper. The heat rollers in Laser Printers are very hot, and if the plastic melts onto one, they're costly to replace.
2. Get your brass cutting done by a machine shop. I spent multiple hours cutting out the neckplate by hand. I had a shop in town cut out the pickguard, and it took them half an hour and cost $30.
3. The toner will not transfer properly in every spot on the design. Experiment with different masks (paint, plastic, etc) that you can fill in the gaps with and will protect the brass.
4. Don't use a very saturated solution of Copper Sulfate. Your solution should be the color of the one on the next page. If it is as dark as this page's, it will etch too fast and unevenly.

	Here's the design for the neckplate. I sketched my idea on paper, and gave it to my friend Zach to put into the computer. He's a graphic design major, and he took my sketches and made them absolutely amazing. I couldn't be happier with the designs. I printed the Design on INKJET photo paper with a LASERJET printer. You need to do this because the plastic particles in the laserjet toner don't adhere well to the inkjet photo paper, so when you heat them on the brass, they melt and adhere to the brass. The design has to be backwards, because you'll get a mirror image when you transfer onto the brass. As a final note, I chose to use the name Storsjö because it's the Finnish version of my Grandfather's last name. He was a carpenter, but he pursued many DIY hobbies. He made all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets, occaisonally put together stained glass lamps, and was a whiz with DOS and Photoshop. Without his influence, I wouldn't have the drive or confidence to think that I could pull of a project like this guitar. If someday I have a company, this will be the logo, but for now, it will adorn the neckplate on my guitar. The image is of a lake monster because the monster Storsjö, Like Nessie, is said to live in Storsjön, a Lake in Sweden.
	Here's the plate that I cut out to be the neckplate. It's a bit rough, but a Dremel can take the edges down if you're concerned about that.
	To iron the mask on, I taped it to the plate, covered it with plain paper, and ironed at the hottest setting. Press very firmly, and go slowly, switching between fast, hard pushes and leaving the iron on one spot for a few seconds.
	After you think you've been ironing long enough, carefully move the hot plate to a bath of warm water. After 15 minutes or so, carefully peel off a layer of paper, then let it soak more. Once you get to the last layer, peel very carefully, and try to leave as much toner on as you can. I took 30 to 60 minutes soaking, so don't rush it.
	Here's the plate almost fully peeled. You can see some spots where it peeled off toner, about the mountain. Be careful!
	This is what the plate looked like after I Peeled it completely and filled in the gaps in the mask with acrylic paint. The acrylic worked well, but it wiped off more easily than the toner once the plate had been etching for a while, so if you can find a more permanent source, try it out.
	This is the back of the pate. I taped a copper wire to the back with electrical tape. That wire hung onto the rim of my container, and another wire ran to it with the positive current.
	This is the 'Cathode Grid' I used for the neckplate. It's not perfect. It was uneven enough that it etched different depths into the plate. Use a thinner wire, make sure it's all the same distance from the plate, and make an actual grid, not just back and forth.
	This is the setup from the diagram above as it looks in real life. The black is positive, and the red is negative. The copper hanging there is bare, and thus very dangerous. Had I touched any of the wire, I could have been injured. Use an insulated wire.
	The solution has turned a muddy green/brown from the residue that collects on the copper and on the brass. This is so drastic because the solution was so saturated. You should take the piece out every 10-15 minutes to wipe it off, but be careful not to remove any of the mask.
	This beauty is the plate right out of the etch. The brown crud is mostly just residue and tarnish. I think there was a little bit of copper transfer onto the plate too though. I scrubbed all of this off with a Brillo pad, and it looked great immediately.
	Here is the plate in a clamp, with one of the holes partially drilled. I did the holes with a drill using a bit made especially for metal.
	It's a bit hard to see the details, but here's the final product. As you can see, the etch was fairly uneven, especially at the peak of the left mountain, and in Storsie's body. If you follow the warnings above, however, it should turn out much more evenly, like my pickguard did. After you're done with the brass, make sure to polish it, and then apply a coat of wax or lacquer. If you don't, the metal will slowly tarnish and turn yellow, then brown. You'll see the difference between clean and tarnished in the next page.

Click here to go back to the page about painting, here to go on to see the pickguard, or here to go back to the main page.