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Erminia Mckissack
I was just wondering if its possible to use armour etch on our house windows?? My front door has a large window with no design in the glass and I'm itching to create something for it... I'd love to be able to use armour etch on it, but not if it can cause the window to get damaged.
I am defining etching as cutting into the surface to make the letters. I do not yet know the way it will be manufactured. I am imagining the inscription will be cut into the object and it would be ideal if this could also be 3D printed.
There are a number of etching kits available (I think Lee Valley carry Armour Etch) through most art/crafts/hobby stores. What you're proposing to do is to "frost" the entire pane, something we used to do with a piece of wet-or-dry abrasive. Can I suggest a web-searchs on 'frosting glass' and 'etching glass' and see what it turns up. Make sure you catch the "stick-on" etching kits, thin mylar sheets that stick to the glass surface glass and provide the frosted/etched appearance.
There are lots of ways to add privacy. The panes can be sandblasted, etched with acid, or covered with a peel-and-stick plastic film. You can also add curtains (something that lets in the light but obscures the view), or put on an additional pane on the interior of, say, frosted glass, textured glass, or stained glass.
An advantage of some of these film is that if you don't like the look the film can be easily removed as they are held on by static electricity not adhesive. Once properly cut to size they can be removed and replaced in minutes. I know one HO that has several sets of these film for her front entrance windows rolled up as sets in a nearby closet.
I would think these films might be worth a try. I understand they are $20 - $40 for a roll. Relatively cheap. Being removable has some advantages over actually etching the windows in that once etched you have to replace the glass, an expensive proposition for insulated glass, to get back to ground zero.
When i make etched glass windows, i etch first and then turn the etched side to the inside of the thermopaned window--lots easier to keep clean. Acid washing can be very spotty in large panels, and doesn't work that well done vertically. Sandblasting on a finished residence--been there, done that, and it isn't pretty, even with a shroud around the worksite.
An extra panel of etched glass (or architectural or art glass--and the sky's the limit as far as patterns and colors here) would do the trick nicely. I framed a single sheet of stained glass in cherry, leaving the irregular selvedge edge exposed, for a guy who just loved the way the whole 3x5 sheet looked. It would also add a bit of thermal performance to your sidelights.
If you want to frost the windows, there are chemical products out there to do this... but be aware that they are going to make a piece of glass that is rough on it's surface. It also is not as easy as it looks. Very toxic and STINKS to high heaven.
I etch glass for a living (if you can call it that), and highly recommend that you not try to get it sand blasted in place. I once did 144 standard panes in a church that another glass artist had sandblasted before they were installed. I had to do them ON SITE because they looked like crap when installed. They will be vacuuming black silicon carbide out of their rugs till the second coming. I started out w 50 lb of grit, weighed what was left over, and somewhere in that church are ten lbs of grit. It's 220 grade, so not recognizable as grit unless you know what you are looking at - you think it is dust. We spread large sheets of PVC to catch most of the grit, and reused it many times. That's the first problem. Second - doing a uniform frost on a large area is the most difficult of all etching skills. A sidelight qualifies as a large area. You think you have it uniform, then you look at it from a different angle & it bites you in some portion of the anatomy you don't want to name.
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anybody mention the possibility that if the existing window is tempered, that sandblasting or etching could thin the hardened layer to the point where any random bump could shatter it.
Both etching and sandblasting can be done on tempered glass. The compressive layer produced by thermal tempering is approximately 25% of the thickness deep. So, for a quarter inch pane, you have at the very most a sixteenth of an inch to play with on either surface. Both processes stay well under that, so you're fine with either one.
Have you tried White silica sand for over all etching of large panels? I have done a few that way with very good results. And if they are standing upright you can see the pattern as you blast. I also blast four passes on the glass . horizontal ,verticle and then corner to corner .
don: never tried white silica. Mainly because it is too dangerous for the dust it creates. Secondly because it doesn't last very long - like one pass through my pressure pot. I get at least 5 passes from SiC. White is coarse as the Devil, however, and just might do it well. I use 220 grit SiC, and it leaves a satin finish on glass. The coarser white sand might do a more uniform job. Still the most difficult type etching to make a large area uniform.
Men forget everything. Women remember everything. That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened. splintergroupie Aug 25, 2004 03:35am #31I once priced a job for a woman who wanted an etched glass panel to hide the toilet from sight while she stood at the bathroom sink or passed by in the hallway.
Victorian and Edwardian homes quickly adopted the look, and today, glass etching designs appear on windows, mirrors, even glassware. As the chemicals needed to achieve this frosted effect have become less toxic, etching glass has turned into an ideal project for DIYers looking to personalize their homes.
Yes indeed, there are action shots! Glass etching happening before your eyes! So click over for the details. Then pop back over here and check this idea out!
Basic supplies: (refer here for complete list)
Once the cream was globbed on, I chose to wait 25 minutes instead of the normal 15 minutes, because I had no idea how this was going to turn out thought it might need the extra time to do its etching magic! You can see below how the large paisley stencil covered the paperweight, and then some, making it easy to use for my lace pattern idea.
Personally I intend to try it when I get my own Glowforge, but I think there are better ways in the long run.
Glowforge Owners Forum Etched Glass - Not Laser MadeThere have been several threads related to etching / engaging glass with a laser. Here are a couple of them. While this may not be new, I wanted to share this with those that may be interested in working with glass. This was made by...
Other minerals will vary by composition. Quarts in all its forms is SiO2, and may also be etchable depending upon the power a Glowforge is able to produce. We will have to wait and see. Other stones are much different and hopefully you are willing to sacrifice a few so you can answer these questions for the rest of us!
I have been using a spring loaded diamond drag bit to etch acrylic with excellent results.
I recently tried etching glass with the same bits, with very mixed results. The etching starts out great but as the job proceeds the quality rapidly goes down hill. 20170923_14140621382851 1.79 MB
My questions are, has anyone used these type of bits for glass etching, and if so what are your settings?
I have been using the following settings for acrylic and attempted to use them on the glass also.
In the United States, VIN etching is a countermeasure to motor vehicle theft, that involves etching a vehicle's VIN onto its windows to reduce the value of a stolen vehicle to thieves. The Federal Trade Commission includes VIN etching on a list of upsold services including extended warranties, service and maintenance plans, payment programs, guaranteed automobile or asset protection, emergency road service, and other theft protection devices, and warns consumers about the practice of upselling when buying a vehicle.[1]
VIN etching uses a variety of methods, commonly a stencil and an acidic etching paste, to engrave a vehicle's vehicle identification number (VIN) onto the windshield and windows. Most parts on a vehicle already have at least a partial VIN stamped onto them, and many auto parts buyers will not purchase parts that carry identification numbers. Should a thief try to sell the parts from a vehicle for profit, those marked parts carry a higher risk for the thief and the auto parts seller. Since automotive glass generally does not have identification numbers and is often interchangeable among many different years and models of vehicles, it usually yields a much greater profit for a thief compared to other components on the vehicle; because a vehicle's windows are stamped with the VIN, thieves would need to discard the glass before "parting out" the stolen vehicle, thus reducing or eliminating their profit.[2] VIN etching can also increase the odds of recovery of a stolen car by police.[3]
Some automobile dealers try to include VIN etching as an extra service to boost their profit margin when selling a vehicle;[16][17] they may even pre-print a charge for VIN etching on the bill of sale, as if to suggest that VIN etching is mandatory rather than an optional, add-on service.[16][18][19] Inflated dealership fees of $200 to $2,000 for VIN etching are not unheard of.[16][17][20] However, consumer advocates note that while some states do require that dealers offer VIN etching, no states require that consumers purchase it from the dealer.[21]
We often have many people ask which decorative etched glass is better, but really it all depends on you and your wants! While the two glass products are similar in style, acid etched glass vs sandblasted glass, are actually very different when it comes to an end goal.
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