Home Made Photo-Etch Tool

[dr_gn]

I thought they looked useful, but they seemed way too overpriced, so I milled one on the lathe out of some scrap aluminium. Only took a few hours, toal cost £0.00. Works great.

[andym]

I thought they looked useful, but they seemed way too overpriced, so I milled one on the lathe out of some scrap aluminium. Only took a few hours, toal cost £0.00. Works great.

Yup, they are easy to make yourself ...if you have the machining skills and equipment and not a lot of people have access to that sort of thing. And getting a machine shop to make you one would cost you as much as you can buy them for. I take it you have a milling attachment for your lathe as I would have machined this on a mill and possibly made the base out of steel, finished on a surface grinder. Alas I no longer have access to this sort of equipment and haven't done any machining for nearly 20 years. It would have saved me a fortune on p.e. benders and punch and die sets if I had. Maybe one day I'll get back into to it.

Andy

Edited March 19, 2010 by andym

[spitfire23bc]

What does it do?

Dan

[Mike]

I want one! My Mission Hold'n'Fold seems to have warped slightly, and now doesn't hold my PE well on the end stations

[dr_gn]

What does it do?

Dan

You trap your photo-etch under the appropriate finger (or edge), then bend it up. It gives a sharp angle and elimintes any kinks (in theory).

Or you could use it as a comb.

[andym]

I want one! My Mission Hold'n'Fold seems to have warped slightly, and now doesn't hold my PE well on the end stations

Is either part of it made from aluminium? Alu is a soft metal and can bend especially if you have clamped down on thick etchings or even with the action of bending. I've noticed similar happening on mine. And whatever you do dont store the Stanley blade that comes with some of things by clamping it in the bender, you will end up bending the keys or the top plate itself. I think something like this would be best made out of steel.

HTH

Andy

Edited March 19, 2010 by andym

[Mike]

Is either part of it made from aluminium? Alu is a soft metal and can bend especially if you have clamped down on thick etchings or even with the action of bending. I've noticed similar happening on mine. And whatever you do dont store the Stanley blade that comes with some of things by clamping it in the bender, you will end up bending the keys or the top plate itself. I think something like this would be best made out of steel.

HTH

Andy

I think I may have tried to squish something with it some while ago (I forget what). The top plate now seems to be fractionally banana-shaped, even though it's made of some phenomonally hard alloy. It's similar to the one below, although I think this one's a bit more modern than mine:

[dr_gn]

I want one! My Mission Hold'n'Fold seems to have warped slightly, and now doesn't hold my PE well on the end stations

If I had a milling machine rather than a lathe, I'd make you one for free! As Andy pointed out, using a lathe with a vertical slide for milling is a bit of a pain in the backside. I'm looking at getting a small mill and coverting it to CNC. Maybe there's a market for this kind of thing who knows?

Re. your existing tool - why not bend the warp out as best you can, and then sand the whole thing flat again by rubbing it over some #800 wet'n'dry paper placed on some glass or a granite worktop? For mine I used that method (only on a steel surface plate rather than glass or granite), before finally lapping the base and top together with metal polish to get a perfect mating surface.

[Mike]

Not a bad idea... I might give that a try, thanks

[Guest snipersmudge]

great skills! I must say that your tool looks very nice. want to sell me one?

[dr_gn]

great skills! I must say that your tool looks very nice. want to sell me one?

Thanks! I'll try it in anger on my next model to see how it performs in real life (as opposed to bending random bits of metal).

When I get my milling machine I'll make a few out of tool steel and post them on here if anyone wants one for cost. They should last forever.

Cheers,

[little-cars]

great skills! I must say that your tool looks very nice. want to sell me one?

That's when the price goes up.... a few hours at £10 an hour.......

[dr_gn]

That's when the price goes up.... a few hours at £10 an hour.......

If I was mass producing them on a CNC machine to sell, it would take probably less than 5 minutes' machining from start to finish. In terms of milling, it doesn't really get much simpler. The material costs virtually nothing.

[dr_gn]

So far so good with the new bending tool. These are some cockpit parts:

One hundred percent success rate up to now, although I suspect this is more due to the quality of Mr. Eduard's etchings than my bending tool! Whatever, it's certainly done a good job considering this is my first attempt at photo-etch.

[Mike]

I'd say "the boy done good!".

[Guest snipersmudge]

that certainly does the job very smart

[IainA]

Dear Dr

If there's going to be a steel version I'll gladly contribute to your beer fund in exchange for one.

Many thanks.

Iain

[Overhaulin]

Can you add me to the" want one" list too please.

[Mark M]

oh oh please please!! i want one!!! make one for me please please!!!!

[TonyT]

Is either part of it made from aluminium? Alu is a soft metal and can bend especially if you have clamped down on thick etchings or even with the action of bending. I've noticed similar happening on mine. And whatever you do dont store the Stanley blade that comes with some of things by clamping it in the bender, you will end up bending the keys or the top plate itself. I think something like this would be best made out of steel.

HTH

Andy

Depends on the alloy you use....... true some is soft, but others are the opposite.

[periklis_sale]

mmmmmmmmmm i would love one of this!!!

[dr_gn]

Depends on the alloy you use....... true some is soft, but others are the opposite.

Also depends on heat treatment / anodising etc.

Mines just an offcut of, presumably 6061 Aluminium.

I tried milling some Tool Steel (in its annealed state) last night. I might get away with it, but it will take considerably longer to machine. I wouldn't bother re-hardening it afterwards since the stiffness is way good enough for photo-etch (then again, so is 6061 Aluminium IMHO).

Seem to have opened a can of worms here - I certainly didn't expect any orders! If I can get a batch of 10 to do I might make some tooling and have a go, no guarantees of functionality of course, but then again mine seems to work OK.

[yeehah1]

I'd take one if you could post to Ireland.

Liam

[Guest snipersmudge]

Seem to have opened a can of worms here - I certainly didn't expect any orders! If I can get a batch of 10 to do I might make some tooling and have a go, no guarantees of functionality of course, but then again mine seems to work OK.

HA That will teach you to be so dam clever! seriously I think you are onto a winner for beer money old bean!

[Mike]

HA That will teach you to be so dam clever! seriously I think you are onto a winner for beer money old bean!

KIT money Smudge!