Does anyone here have any experience with acid etching?

Gopherbassist

Gopherbassist

Jan 19, 2008
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#1
So I'm starting a new job at the end of the month and had to buy about $120 in hand tools for it. I also bought some letter punches to mark them, but have found that swinging a hammer at my hand with enough force to make an indentation into hardened steel isn't something I have much aptitude for. I was looking for an alternative that was permanent, simple to do, and wouldn't affect the durability of my tools.

I thought about painting them, but a lot of them have rubber handles and I'm pretty sure the paint would peel off of them and I'd have to re do it on a regular basis. In my search for a better alternative I stumbled on this video:

That makes it look like a pretty simple operation, cheap to do and pretty much permanent.

Has anyone here done this before? Does he leave anything out?
If you have, is sealing with a dab of oil like he shows enough to deter corrosion and rust?
 
#7
On your first day at the new job, while you are being acquainted with your new co-workers, kindly inform them they will be begging for their life if anyone touches one of your tools. To make your point clear, randomly choose one person and snap off one of their fingers in front of the group.
You won't need to worry from then on about anyone touching your tools.

-Mike
 
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#8
I work in a stained glass shop and one of the things we do is sandblasting and sand carving of glass. What we do in the case of lettering, stock images and so forth (as opposed to a hand-drawn image) is have a vinyl resist cut, put masking over the top of it (masking is just a giant roll of masking tape, more or less), then peel off the backing and apply it to whatever's getting sandblasted. You could try something along those lines.
 
#10
I've worked in several shops where they had an electric engraver in the tool crib just for marking tools. you check it out, engrave the last four digits of your SSN on your tools and turn it back in.

It might not look like much but it's security, not art and it's quick and permanent.
 
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#12
ShredderMaximus said:
Nope, only ingesting.
Click to expand...
dragons.jpg
 
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#13
Hmm, I worked in a factory for 5 years at one point. I did mark some things that it would be more or less permanent on; such as plastic cases and the like. Never once did I ever have a problem with people stealing my crap. When not working the tools were locked up in a rolling craftsman tool chest, I guess the guys I worked with were pretty honest.

However the Chris Fix video makes it look pretty easy to do the etching. Probably first time for doing it would certainly be tedious and slow but rather permanent.
 
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